


It's even worse than it looks

by unknown_knowns



Series: Even better than it sounds [1]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: 800 tags later and I'm just now mentioning, Aftercare, Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, BDSM, Banter, Begging, Biting, Blindfolds, Bondage, Caught, Clothing Control, Collars, Communication, Consensual Non-Consensual, Degradation, Dirty Talk, Don't worry, Enemies to Lovers, Exhibitionism, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Foot Fetish, Forced Orgasm, Humiliation, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Interspersed Fluff, Masturbation Control, Max doesn't even know what 'bdsm' is, Mostly Max POV, Naked Sub & Clothed Dom, Oral Sex, Orgasm Control, Orgasm Delay, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Orgasm Denial, Piercings, Possessive Behavior, Power Exchange, Power Play, Public Claiming, Public Humiliation, Public Sex, Rape Roleplay, Resolved Sexual Tension, Restraints, Roleplay, S&M, SO, Scratching, Sensory Deprivation, Sex Toys, Sexual Content, Sexual Roleplay, Sexual Tension, Slow Romance, Some Revolving POV as well, Spanking, Stripping, Sub!Max, Subspace, Teaching, Teasing, Temperature Play, They both have insecurities to work through, Vaginal Fingering, Verbal Abuse, Verbal Humiliation, Vibrators, Victoria has herself a nice arc, Voyeurism, Wet Dream, amberprice/chasefield banter, balance of porn and relationship stuff, dom!Victoria, gaynst, guys is there a limit on tags, or can I just keep going on forever, seriously tho hickies, speech control, though there's a lot of porn, we got that, wow hey look at this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2018-08-19 22:05:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 66,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8226214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknown_knowns/pseuds/unknown_knowns
Summary: Max feels funny when Victoria talks down to her.Victoria can help.Maybe. Max is in way in over her head.It’s complicated.





	1. Hunted

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends.
> 
> I've had it in my head for a while that Victoria is actually a pretty kinky person.
> 
> What then happens if Max has a complementary set of kinks, but unwittingly?
> 
>  _Fireworks_. Gay, kinky, fireworks.
> 
> Note that I spend considerable time setting up the relationship, their ability to trust one another, and their ability to communicate. It's especially important (to me) given that some heavier kinks are explored. We do definitely get to the kinks, though, don't worry about that.
> 
> The focus of this is mostly Chasefield, but there is some Amberprice here and there, and even a sex scene for them.
> 
> As always, feel free to leave comments. Also, this is erotica, so don't feel ashamed to say if it left you hot and bothered; that's its job, after all.

Max knew today was Friday.

She knew it, because Victoria was playing incredibly _loud_ music.

This is what she did on Fridays. It was “pre-gaming” for some parties she’d have in the afternoon.

At least, that’s what Max pieced together, from the various shouted conversations Victoria had had in her room over the past few months.

This all was a problem for Max, since she lived in the dorm room directly across from Victoria.

The gods had not been favorable to Max in this arrangement.

Max wondered if she had kicked a few puppies in her past life, or something.

Victoria was an awful neighbor.

She had to be the least considerate person on campus, and had an awful knack for having three or four of her friends in her room at a time.

It’s like they were having mini-parties all of the time, or something.

It was _awful_.

Max just wanted some peace and quiet.

She had homework she needed to do.

She had books she needed to read.

And her stupid earbuds were not nearly isolating enough to stop the tremor in her body from the bass in Victoria’s ridiculous hi-fi system.

Just about when she had almost guilted herself into going over there and asking Victoria to try playing her music without making everyone else on the floor deaf, it went quiet.

Max blinked.

Maybe some ---

Her optimism was immediately shattered by what had to have been an even _louder_ song playing after that short period of break.

Victoria must have just been picking out a new playlist, or whatever.

Max groaned and flopped her head down on her desk.

She needed to do _something_ if she wanted to get any work done, tonight.

Just the thought made Max incredibly anxious.

Victoria was a bully.

She was the queen of this school and went far out of her way to make sure every single person on campus knew it.

She’d probably just laugh in Max’s face, skewer her with some painful words, and then play the music even louder, to spite her.

Max could imagine the scenario _perfectly_ in her head.

And she could imagine it since it had already happened once or twice.

And for a while, this doubt and assurance that this would only backfire was enough to keep Max glued to her seat, pointedly trying to ignore the music.

But this wasn’t sustainable.

She had to do _something_.

She carefully peeled herself out of her seat.

Her mind immediately started to wander.

Maybe her plant --- Lisa --- could use some watering.

Did she ever give Warren back his book?

When’s the last time she played her guitar, anyway?

Max had to shake her head and try and dispel the distracting thoughts.

Or one of them would eventually convince her to do anything other than what she was about to do.

She had to do _something._

Max picked up the hoodie from her couch and put it on.

She wasn’t confident in her dressing abilities in the slightest, and just wore whatever was comfortable.

And some graphic tees that reflected her love of nature, particularly animals.

Victoria teased her about that, too.

Max decided to zip up her hoodie, even if she wasn’t all that cold, to hide the t-shirt underneath.

The less ammo Victoria had to use, the easier this would be.

She then breathed in deep, sighed severely, and opened her door.

The music was even louder out here, but whatever.

Max quietly closed the door to her room and made her way over to Victoria’s.

She hesitated on knocking.

Victoria probably wouldn’t even hear the knocking.

Max was just wasting her time.

This wasn’t going to work.

Despite her negative thoughts, some part of her willed her hand forward enough to knock at the door.

It wasn’t a confident knock, though.

The other parts of her had ensured she didn’t do it all that loudly.

Those parts of her didn’t want to be noticed.

Especially not by Victoria.

But Max was wrong.

The music died off.

There were a few moments of hesitation.

Then,

“Who the fuck is it? Is that you, Taylor? I _told_ _you_ , we’re meeting in an _hour_.”

Max bit her lip.

That’s why Victoria cut the music.

She was expecting one of her friends over, soon.

Again, Max almost convinced herself to quit while she was ahead, but some part of her that wasn’t quite as miserable as the rest insisted she move forward.

Even if she came away from this a bit skewered.

“It’s M-max.”

Max couldn’t even manage two words to Victoria without stammering and she hated it.

“What the _fuck_ …”

Victoria sounded annoyed.

But she kind of always did, anyway.

The music still hadn’t started back up again, so that was progress. Maybe.

The door opened.

Victoria was fully dressed.

She always was.

Even though her outfits typically had many layers.

Max hadn’t even seen her in a night gown, once.

Max even had the thought that Victoria must have showered in her clothes, since she seemed to be dressed even coming out of the bathroom early in the morning.

Her clothes were perfectly coordinated, sharp, and immaculate.

Victoria put a tremendous amount of emphasis on personal appearance.

She was the opposite of Max, in more ways than one.

“Earth to fucking hipster. Come in, hipster. It’s the goddamn person you interrupted. _Hello_.”

 _Oh_.

Max did that sometimes.

She easily got lost in her thought, and made these social circumstances even harder than they should have been.

Max wasn’t even thinking of what to say in all of this time, so she rushed her brain for something.

“I-I just … I’d like to study, please, and I can’t hear anything with your music …”

Victoria scoffed.

“You’re not even going to look at me when you talk to me? What the fuck is wrong with you, anyway?”

Max felt herself shrinking even further.

She had difficulty with eye contact.

She was getting a little bit better; she had some friends like Warren now to practice with, but Victoria knew just the ways to make Max revert back to the scared little girl she felt like.

Unconsciously, her hand came up to rub at her own shoulder and arm, which only made her look smaller and more unsure of herself.

“I don’t know…”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“And that fucking jacket. Like I don’t know what you’ve got ---“

One of her hands shot right over to unzip Max’s hoodie.

This was highly unusual.

She almost always had her arms crossed or by her sides in fists.

Victoria had bullied Max for a while now, but it had never become physical.

Max didn’t really know how to handle the violation of her personal space.

So she just did nothing, and felt even more awkward and unbalanced.

“--- underneath. Look. Some fucking animal t-shirt.”

Max kept staring at her shoes.

She kicked one of them gently.

“I like animals…”

Max defended herself.

But she was weak, quiet, and unconvincing.

She knew she had already lost this conversation.

This was just damage control, now.

Victoria sighed viciously.

Max imagined Victoria’s eyes rolling and one of her hands coming to rub at her forehead.

She imagined it since she was still looking at the ground and couldn’t see for sure.

Max couldn’t handle that glare.

It’d crush her, right now.

But Victoria had other plans.

“Fucking _look_ at me when you’re talking to me, hipster. I can’t even hear what you’re saying.”

Once again, Victoria touched her, and once again, it severely unbalanced Max.

This time, Victoria’s hand grasped at Max’s chin and dragged it up to look at Victoria’s face.

At least the other contact was only to her clothing.

There was no escaping the feeling of the direct skin contact, nor the feeling of Victoria’s nails pressing into her skin slightly.

Max’s breathing hitched.

She really should do _something_ to protest, or Victoria was just going to learn that she could walk all over Max like this.

Max did nothing.

She was too transfixed in Victoria’s gaze.

Victoria looked so annoyed.

Her dark eyes felt like they were burrowing right into Max’s skull.

Even Victoria’s perfectly blonde hair felt like it was judging her, somehow.

Victoria _would_ have the kind of hair that did that.

Max’s eyes immediately looked away.

She stammered something incoherent.

She was definitely blushing now and couldn’t figure out why.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…”

Victoria’s second hand came up to flick at Max’s nose.

Max recoiled slightly, but didn’t have the sense of mind or self-preservation to raise her own hands up to stop Victoria.

Max still couldn’t figure out why.

Something about Victoria’s presence was just paralyzing that part of her.

Victoria must have worked out that the physical contact could be a new, improved way of torturing Max.

She was right.

Even when Warren just hugged her, she felt tremendously awkward.

And he had _never_ manhandled her face or flicked at her nose like this.

He had issues with her personal space too, but it was never like this.

This was a totally new experience and Max felt way in over her head.

“Looking at people involves your eyes. I’m right here. _Look._ ”

For some reason though, Victoria’s voice actually got softer.

A little bit of the irritation was bled out of it.

Max had to just blink.

Was this Victoria when she was trying to be nice?

Was it that obvious that Max felt totally overwhelmed right now?

Max had to find out.

Nervously and carefully, Max worked her eyes to look back over at Victoria.

Max could tell she was making _some_ kind of conscious effort into not looking as intimidating.

This was new, too.

But this was Victoria, after all, so her face was still basically a harsh stone that felt pulverizing even now.

Max couldn’t steady her breathing, still.

“Now. What is it that you want from me? Just say it.”

Victoria still hadn’t let go of Max’s chin and her free hand was by her chest, with her index finger extended from the rest of a loose fist.

It must have been on standby in case Max made another mistake, or something, to flick at her again.

Max closed her eyes and sighed.

If Victoria was ever going to listen to her, it would be now, when her features were less severe, her voice as soft and gentle as it had ever been, and when she was actively forcing dialogue out of Max.

Max opened her eyes.

“Your music is too loud and I can’t study. Can you please turn it down?”

Max was surprised by how much more confident her voice sounded when Victoria wasn’t actively tearing into her.

Victoria frowned.

 _Shit_.

But then she flattened the expression on her face, stood up straight, and re-crossed her arms.

Max didn’t stop looking at Victoria.

She was still in kind of a stupor from Victoria’s arresting physical presence.

Max couldn’t figure out why, still, and it continued to vex her.

“Now, was that so hard? Yes, Max _ine_ , I can turn my music down. The party starts in an hour, anyway. I wouldn’t want to tire myself out unnecessarily before it then.”

At least this voice was more recognizably Victoria. There was a general aloofness to it, but she over-enunciated everything like she was talking to some kind of small child.

But Max just blinked when the words really registered.

Since when has that stopped Victoria before?

Max realized she suddenly didn’t care, if it meant Victoria’s music was going to go away.

She could even ignore Victoria intentionally trying to get under her skin with the very wrong way to say her name.

She tried to smile as genuinely as she could.

“T-thanks, Victoria.”

Victoria grunted flatly and looked at her nails.

Max hesitated, but she took the hint and turned around to go back into her room.

Whence safely within there, she collapsed back against her door and skidded down into a sitting position.

The music still hadn’t started up.

Max patiently waited for a minute or two to see if she had been punk’d or something, but no, the music was gone.

That was really weird.

This was really weird.

Victoria had never done her any favors.

Max played and replayed the exchange in her mind countless times.

She was arrested on the idea that Victoria was now suddenly comfortable just touching her whenever she pleased.

Did Max do something that invited it?

Every time she replayed the event, she couldn’t pick out anything in particular she did differently.

She was just her usual awkward self, who Victoria tore down, before deciding, seeming mercurially, that she wasn’t going to take that route.

Max just slumped her head forwards with a frustrated sigh.

She didn’t understand why Victoria had to be so mean to everyone, and she understood Victoria even _less_ now, with that tiny glimpse into someone who wasn’t quite as much of a bitch.

Well.

At least she could study, now.

Max tried to put the confusing exchange out of her mind.

She could tell she was already over-thinking it.

\---

Max knew what day it was, but she couldn’t recall it right now.

Since she had just bumped into Victoria, by accident, and Max’s bag decided life was better on the floor, with its guts all spilled out everywhere.

It was already an embarrassing situation.

“Do you even have any fucking clue what you’re doing anymore?”

And Victoria wasn’t making it any easier to deal with.

Max flinched, trying to collect some _stupid_ pieces of paper that had just gone absolutely _everywhere_.

“It’s like you’re a zombie or something. Jesus Christ. Can’t you do anything right?”

“I … I …”

Max had trouble with words even when she focused entirely on synthesizing them.

But when her attention was split between trying to recover her belongings and keeping her composure around Victoria, it was basically impossible.

“What’s it like being the most pathetic loser on campus?”

Max felt like her face was on fire from the embarrassment.

She finished recovering the state of her bag not a moment too soon.

She got up, slinged her bag over her shoulder and ---

Victoria’s arm suddenly collided with hers and Victoria’s weight followed-through with it.

Victoria’s arm had come square across to push firmly against the upper part of Max’s chest, just below her neck.

Max’s breathing hitched way higher than she ever remembered being possible.

She couldn’t breathe right.

Victoria was so close now.

She spent way more effort maintaining her physique, and was taller.

If she wanted to physically overpower Max, she could do it easily.

But for some reason Max’s attention was more focused on Victoria’s lavender perfume than the very real and very physical bullying.

“Aren’t you going to fucking apologize for delaying me?”

Max didn’t have the words.

She tried, but every failure just felt her shrinking that much more, and made it that much more difficult continue.

It probably didn’t help that she was still having tremendous difficulty breathing right.

“And for your information ---“

Victoria’s free hand came up to grasp at Max’s chin and force it upwards once again.

Since it had been looking downwards, away from Victoria.

As it was wont to do.

Victoria had officially learned she could do whatever she wanted and Max still didn’t know how to process it. It wasn’t getting any easier to.

“--- I’m _up here_.”

Max just allowed her face to be guided upwards into looking at Victoria’s.

As embarrassing as it was to be humiliated by her like this, Max could at least comfort herself that her blush was mostly private when she was looking down.

Not so, anymore.

Victoria could see every inch of it consuming Max’s face.

It was mortifying.

Max’s breathing became shallow and quick.

Her heart felt like it was going too quickly.

Like she was going to hyperventilate and pass out.

She couldn’t take this.

Max _wanted_ to look away but her eyes felt transfixed to looking into Victoria’s.

She could watch as her face got even closer.

“And you didn’t tell me, earlier. About what it felt like being the _biggest loser_ in this _fucking_ school.”

Victoria’s voice suddenly dropped low and became only for Max’s ears.

It was just above a whisper, but there was still a forcefulness and harshness to her words.

Max broke eye contact to look away now.

It was too much.

The hand that was on her chin came up to squeeze at her cheeks.

It was forceful.

Nails came into contact with her skin.

Too harshly.

That was going to leave a mark.

 

Max moaned.

 

Both of them just stopped processing the world for a few seconds.

Max’s eyes shot wide open but her head refused to move a goddamn inch, so she was just stuck looking at some part of the floor that definitely was not all that interesting.

She suddenly had the very real urge to get away from Victoria.

The part of her that desired this was operating on a different level from her conscious mind, which was still entirely frozen, horrified.

She shoved Victoria with more force than she thought she could muster.

Victoria stumbled back with a grunt. Her arms slowly fell down to their sides after some delay.

Max’s body blazed right into her room, immediately closed the door, and locked it behind her.

_What the fuck._

Max was _officially_ starting to freak out, now.

She tossed her bag, carelessly, to nowhere in particular.

It wasn’t important, right now.

Victoria was banging on her door,

“Open this _fucking_ thing. We need to talk.”

But Max was not going to do any such thing any time soon.

She wasn’t important right now, either.

Instead, she just paced nervously in her room and tried to figure out what the hell just happened.

 

When Victoria had given up and Max had decided she would think more clearly if she just tried to relax on her bed, Max slowly came to terms with what it all meant.

But she wished she really didn’t know what this meant.

She wished she wasn’t familiar with this particular way her body flushed.

She wished she wasn’t familiar with this particular way her breathing became quick and rapid.

She wished she wasn’t familiar with this particular way her body responded to touch like that.

She wished she wasn’t familiar with this particular person who brought it out of her.

That was arousal.

Not embarrassment.

Max was getting off when Victoria was being such a cruel bitch to her.

Could the universe possibly be more goddamn unfair to her at this point?

Max just shoved her face into her bed’s pillow and cried for a long time.

There was probably angry shouting in there, somewhere, too.

Max’s emotions were pretty confusing right now and she couldn’t make much sense of them.

Max’s body was pretty confusing right now and she couldn’t make much sense of it.

But she at least found some measure of reprieve after the combination of shouting and crying had exhausted her.

Both emotionally, and physically.

She fell asleep.

\---

The next few days were miserable.

Max did everything she possibly could to ignore Victoria.

From everything she knew about her, if Victoria figured this out, she would immediately and mercilessly use this information to completely humiliate Max in the most public of ways possible.

Max wasn’t even fucking sure if she hated that or got turned on by that but she knew it wasn’t good for her life, either way.

Even if this was just how her body worked, she had to repress it, somehow.

This wasn’t normal.

Not the humiliation, not the Victoria being a woman, not Victoria being … Victoria.

No part of this felt normal or healthy.

She had to do everything she could to put a stop to it.

\---

Max took showers way late at night, now.

Her schedule was different, now.

She didn’t see Victoria anymore, now.

Her life was easier, now.

She didn’t have to think about what happened, now.

She finished taking one of her showers.

It had to have been like one in the morning by now.

Max knew this was miserable and pathetic.

She should just talk to Victoria and get this over with.

At least then, after Victoria laughed and laughed and laughed … and laughed some more … then her life could go back to some semblance of normalcy.

She was out in the hall ways, now, after she had finished drying off.

She carefully pulled out the key to her room from her shower bag.

She hardly even had time to register the information of Victoria’s door opening before she shot out of her room and pushed herself against Max’s back, pinning her to the door.

The key and bag fell to the floor, uselessly.

_Shit._

This was bad.

This was really bad.

One of Max’s arms had ended up being pushed up and away when Victoria’s body collided with her.

She soon felt Victoria’s hands grasping at the exposed wrist and tightly squeezing at it with her nails.

That felt like it was going to leave a mark, too.

But nobody moved.

Max had a few seconds to really just take in everything.

She could hear the severity and speed of her own breathing.

She could feel every exhale Victoria made. From the compression of her chest all the way up to the gentle pattern of air coming down Max’s hair.

No one said anything for a long while.

No one moved a muscle.

But Max didn’t stop feeling those nails for one second, and no matter how hard she tried, her breathing wouldn’t recover or steady.

Eventually,

“Max …”

Max could never tell what brought out Victoria’s gentle voice.

She liked hearing it, though.

Max could smell booze and lavender.

It was a weird mx.

She wasn’t going to forget it anytime soon.

Max didn’t have any words, though.

She just closed her eyes, since they weren’t doing her any good, anyway.

“Please. Isn’t this what you _wanted_?”

Victoria’s nails dug in to emphasize her last word.

Max shivered without meaning to.

Victoria seemed conflicted, with softness of her words and wistfulness that Max could tell was just dying to come out if she wasn’t trying so hard to repress it.

Maybe this whole situation was bothering Victoria as much as it was Max.

Maybe Victoria just set up some cameras in her room or had her friends on standby, ready to mock and humiliate Max as soon as she gave Victoria one ounce of trust.

Maybe Max couldn’t really fucking think well with Victoria’s nails digging into her skin like this.

Max found some words.

She groaned, and her voice felt too dry and cracked.

“I don’t know what I want.”

This gave Victoria pause.

She slowly released Max’s arm, and backed away just enough to give Max some semblance of personal space.

Max carefully turned around to face Victoria.

Her breathing was still going a million miles an hour but her eyes had at least adjusted a little bit better to the darkness, so she could open them now.

“I don’t … I don’t understand any of this. I don’t understand _you_. I don’t understand _me_. I don’t understand … _whatever it is_ you’re doing to me.”

Sometimes, the only way Max could find her footing in a conversation was by being brutally honest.

It helped that she couldn’t really make out too many details of what she assumed had to have been Victoria’s hard glare.

Victoria came close to Max, again.

Her hands very carefully and slowly found Max’s own.

She felt Victoria’s nails tapping along her wrists.

Max didn’t resist when Victoria dragged them above her head and pinned them there.

Max didn’t know why.

She kept looking at Victoria.

Victoria’s face came closer.

Her face was just a few inches away, again.

She was breathing carefully.

Max was envious of that control.

“Max. We need to talk.”

Victoria’s nails dug into Max’s wrists carefully, but forcefully.

They were making patterns of gripping severely for a few seconds, then loosening and rubbing at the skin they gripped at.

It was about the only thing Max’s brain was processing right now and it was not helping one goddamn bit.

Max groaned and shifted around.

Her legs ended up rubbing together without her meaning them to.

“R-right … now? In here …?”

Max’s voice came out uneven and a little airy.

She was less familiar with this part of herself since it’s not like she made a habit of talking when she was getting off.

Max could make out a frown, at least, on Victoria’s face.

“If I let you go, you’re going to go right back into that room, and go back to pretending I don’t exist.”

Max bit her lip.

She did have kind of a point.

Victoria just sighed and looked down.

“Just. Please. Tomorrow night. Knock on my door. I don’t have anything planned. No one will be in there.”

Max was kind of speechless, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the genuine _want_ she heard in Victoria’s voice or her own arousal.

It was confusing.

Victoria tended to have that effect on her.

After a few moments, Max nodded.

She did want to have a talk, after all.

She just didn’t think Victoria did, as well.

“O-okay. I’ll… do that… but for n-now, let me go?”

Victoria smiled softly.

Max hadn’t seen Victoria smile before.

Victoria let Max’s arms go, but she raked her nails down them in the process of doing so.

It was impossibly distracting and it got an uneasy, high-pitched, shaky exhale out of Max.

It sounded a lot like a breathless moan.

Victoria was getting too good at manipulating those out of her.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

But she seemed entirely unphased by Max’s reaction, now.

Victoria was still smiling as she turned around, opened her door, went inside, and closed it.

Max just had to spend a good solid minute just trying to calm herself down and recompose herself.

To try and steady her breathing.

She wasn’t really able to, it was the thought that counted.

She rubbed at her own wrists.

Gently, she leaned over to pick up her shower bag and room key.

She went back into her room, locked the door, and collapsed onto her bed.

That was the first night Max masturbated again since she discovered this unfortunate affliction.

She was less ashamed of it, this time.

She thought more directly about Victoria, this time, and the way Victoria effortlessly violated her personal space.

Max was in _way_ over her head about this whole thing.

But Victoria seemed to know more about it than she did.

Victoria could help.

Maybe.


	2. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max goes to Victoria's room.
> 
> Victoria smiles.
> 
> Max isn't normal.
> 
> But Victoria isn't, either.

Max had imagined a lot of things might happen in her senior year here at Blackwell.

She thought she was going to learn more about photography.

She thought she was definitely going to like Mr. Jefferson.

She thought she might make some friends.

She thought she might end up with a boyfriend, even, if she played her cards right.

Max did not end up with a boyfriend.

Instead, she was standing outside of Victoria’s room.

Victoria was not a boy.

But Victoria already knew how to touch Max in the ways to excite her.

In ways that pretty much no else did.

Not even herself.

She thought about last night so much.

She thought about how she even really stopped noticing when Victoria casually maneuvered her around.

Victoria had already learned that she could basically do whatever she wanted and Max wouldn’t even protest.

It was a humiliating kind of thought, earlier.

A testament to how much of a loser she was.

But Victoria was adding a weird, different edge to everything.

There was something more going on than just Max being a loser.

Victoria knew very particularly how to bring out this out.

She’d been doing it for a long time, now.

Max wondered how long it had been arousing.

What did this even make her?

What did this make them?

Victoria was, at best, an acquaintance.

Yet she had very squarely and effortlessly slotted herself into the part of Max’s life that would have made her so much more in any other context.

It was confusing.

But then Max just shook her head.

She’d just been standing here for a while, dreading knocking on Victoria’s door.

It felt like one of her pivotal life moments.

If she just walked away now, Victoria would know she wasn’t interested.

She’d burn any chance at friendship, but at least she could put these weird, confusing feelings to bed.

What scared Max was the possibility she _was_ interested.

The part of her that was less miserable than the rest had her arm raised and hands knocking before the rest of her could meaningfully object.

It was tired of waiting.

Well.

Too late, now.

“It’s open.”

Max bit her lip.

Then she just sighed and pushed the door open.

Max wasn’t really sure what she expected Victoria’s room to look like.

Roomier, she guessed.

Victoria had roughly the same amount of furniture as Max, but everything was far more expensive-looking and pristine.

Victoria very elaborately made her bed in the morning and arranged the throw pillows and blankets on her couch to look _just so_.

There was an entirely too-expensive TV across from the couch.

And a Victoria, of course.

Max wasn’t going to miss Victoria just standing, perched, looking out her window.

Which was kind of weird since it was pretty late at night, now, and she couldn’t have been seeing much anything interesting.

“Max.”

The door closed behind her.

Max put her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

She tried to will herself into not looking down and away, this time.

She wanted to be present in this conversation.

“Victoria.”

Victoria sighed and turned around.

Of course, she had her arms crossed and a kind of severe, annoyed look on her face.

Max flinched, but didn’t look away.

There was eye contact, this time.

Victoria took a few steps closer.

Her face softened to look more neutral.

It was a bit easier to keep looking at her, now.

“So. I suppose I should be honest, here. I know exactly what you’re going through.”

Max bit her lip.

She found a little hard to believe, since, well, Max didn’t even know exactly what she was going through.

But Victoria’s voice was soft and gentle right now.

Max wasn’t going to interrupt it.

“You’re, at the very least, a light masochist, and you sexually enjoy being humiliated. You’re into beady-es-em.”

Max looked to the ground, now.

She mumbled something.

Victoria sighed.

She sounded annoyed.

She walked right over to force Max’s face right back up.

“Once again, using your words this time?”

Victoria had some harshness in her face again.

Max hesitated.

She hardly even registered Victoria being in her personal space as an affront, anymore.

But it was one thing for Victoria to draw out humiliating and embarrassing things.

It was another thing entirely for Max to humiliate herself.

She couldn’t do it.

Her eyes looked away.

Victoria frowned.

She paused for a few seconds before she lowered her hand to grab at one of Max’s and none-too-gently tug her towards Victoria’s couch.

Max didn’t resist and sat down pleasantly next to Victoria.

With some friendly distance between them, anyway.

“You don’t trust me.”

Victoria said, flatly.

Max had some words for this. She looked sideways to Victoria.

“I guess that’s an understatement. You’ve only been mean and … awful, to me.”

Victoria opened her mouth to say something, but.

There really wasn’t anything _to_ say.

Instead, she just sighed, leaned forward a little bit, and nodded.

“So alright. You have literally no reason to trust me about this, or, really, anything.”

Very flatly, again.

They went quiet.

Victoria quickly tapped at her knees after some moments of thought and straightened her posture again.

“So how about this. I’ll tell you something that I haven’t told anyone else, and you’ll tell me whatever it is you were going to say.”

Max blinked.

Victoria _wanted_ Max’s trust?

Just what the hell had gotten into her?

“A-alright, I guess.”

Max sounded uncertain and a little confused.

Since she _was_ uncertain and a little confused.

Victoria was quiet for a few moments.

“I know what you’re going through since I’m the same way. Kind of. You’re a masochist. I’m a sadist. You’re submissive. I’m dominant. Mostly.”

Victoria pursed her lips.

Max hoped the confusion on her face spoke for her.

But they did have a deal, even if Victoria apparently didn’t feel the need to elaborate any further.

“I don’t know what any of what you said tonight means.”

Max said, simply.

Victoria blinked and went quiet.

She gave Max a sidelong look.

Max felt self-conscious and looked away.

She rubbed at her arm.

This is why she didn’t want to tell Victoria about this.

That judgmental look.

“Nothing?”

Max nodded again, slowly.

“Nothing. I just … I don’t understand any of this, Victoria. Why you’re so mean to me. Why my body does this to me. It’s …”

She frowned, and trailed off.

Despite it all, Max didn’t want to tell Victoria that she felt it was unfair on a cosmic scale that Victoria was the one, of all people, to bring this out of her.

Victoria crossed her arms and looked distantly at one of her walls, somewhere.

Maybe she was looking for words to use.

Either to assure herself, or Max.

For her part, Max hesitated for about a minute.

“I don’t …”

Victoria looked at Max sidelong again.

Max turned her head to face Victoria’s.

“I’m not even sure you don’t hate me, and then you go and make me feel l-like this… I just …”

Max still didn’t really have the words.

Victoria sighed and stood up.

Her arms were still crossed.

“So you have no idea what you’re doing, you think I hate you, you’re not even sure you want to be here, and you still came anyway.”

Victoria sounded distant.

Max felt pretty silly when Victoria summed it up like that.

“I guess so.”

Max slumped forward. She rested her weight on her elbows, and her elbows on her knees.

“Well. This is not what I was expecting.”

Victoria’s tone became flat, again.

Maybe that was for the better. Max wasn’t sure how she felt about Victoria sounding distant and wistful.

“So. I’ll tell you this. I don’t hate you. You’re pretty, or would be, if you tried. You’re very competent at taking photos. You could be so much more if you just dropped the bullshit insecure act and believed in yourself.”

Victoria turned around to face Max.

Max couldn’t really read her expression.

Perhaps it was because her mind was going a million miles an hour processing everything Victoria had just said, including the tail-end accusation. Victoria didn’t hate her? Victoria liked her photos? Victoria thought she was attractive?

“Here’s an easy out. You leave my room now, we’ll try and forget any of this ever happened.”

Max bit her lip.

She had already considered walking out on Victoria, a lot.

But she was here, now.

“And if I stay?”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“That depends. Are you attracted to me, Max?”

“I …”

Max wasn’t used to such a direct and piercing question.

She looked down to the ground and fumbled a sentence a few times.

Victoria was quiet.

Then,

“Max. If you want to stay, we need to be able to communicate. Yes or no, please.”

Max was expecting an annoyed-sounding Victoria for her hesitation, but that’s not what she got.

Victoria still sounded gentle and soft.

Max stood up.

She opened her mouth, about to mumble something so that only the floor was her audience, but.

Then she looked up and met Victoria’s eyes.

Her expression wasn’t judgmental.

Max already knew the answer, anyway.

“Yes.”

She tried to follow Victoria’s rules.

“And do you want to know more about … all of this?”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

Victoria sighed.

“And do you trust me enough to listen me when I tell you to do something?”

Max hesitated.

She didn’t really know.

She considered lying to Victoria to make her happy, but then her words from a few moments ago reprimanded her once again: _We need to be able to communicate, Max_.

She bit her lip.

“I don’t know.”

Victoria nodded.

Max was surprised.

“That’s understandable. So. Here is what I propose. You either leave here, and we forget about this, or you stay, and I … _educate_ you. You will listen to me when I tell you what to do, and you will do exactly what I tell you to do.”

Max blinked.

Victoria paused for a few seconds.

“And, for some sense of what this will be like, I’m going to tell you to strip, first.”

“I …”

Victoria raised her hand and put it against Max’s lips to hush her.

Max went quiet.

“I’m going to get something from the soda machine down stairs. I’ll walk slowly so you have some time to consider if you can trust me enough to do that. If you can’t and don’t, or you’ve already lied to me, then just …”

Victoria sighed.

She suddenly sounded miserable.

“Just please walk out. It’ll only make things harder otherwise.”

With that, she turned on her heel, opened her door, and walked out.

Max was speechless.

She was in _way in over her head_.

This was already so complicated.

She flopped back onto the couch and just considered all of what Victoria said.

She stared up uselessly at the ceiling.

She wished she could pause time or something to be able to fully consider all of the threads of logic associated in Victoria’s yarn ball of a proposition.

Victoria didn’t hate her.

Max didn’t really hate Victoria, either.

Max was pretty sure she at least had a crush, but she didn’t know how much of it was tied up with this _stupid_ affliction she had. Maybe it was just hormones.

Maybe Victoria was just really good at sex and just knew how to rile someone so inexperienced up.

Did Max want to get that close to Victoria just to be used like that?

Would Victoria just use her like that?

Victoria had been alarmingly kind and gentle throughout this discussion – for her, anyway.

She seemed genuinely concerned when Max said she didn’t know what she was doing.

She seemed genuinely worried when Max was going so far out of her way to ignore her, last night.

Could Max even do something like this with a woman?

It sure didn’t seem to register as a concern to Victoria.

That made that particular thread easier to deal with, at least.

Max didn’t want to be enemies with Victoria.

Victoria’s bullying and passive-aggressive behaviors were some of the worst parts of going to Blackwell.

Turning her into someone neutral or friendly would be a huge win.

Could Max do this? Use the sex just to make Victoria friendly?

Is that something normal people did?

Did that make the Max the asshole out of all of this, somehow?

And this was her first time, if it did get to that.

She already kind of felt like a loser for taking this long to get rid of it, but.

Could she let it be squandered on someone who probably didn’t even care that much for her?

At least Victoria was unquestionably attractive and good-looking.

She groaned viciously and put her hands up to her eyes.

She needed to feel the pressure of her fists against her closed eyes, and then to enjoy the odd feeling after they left.

She needed to feel her hands dragging down her own cheeks.

This was so damn confusing.

 

Max decided she could at least see if Victoria only wanted her for the sex.

Or whatever all of this was.

This wasn’t going to get any less confusing without Victoria’s help.

And it would be better, she figured, if she learned from someone who seemed to know what they were doing.

Instead of groping around randomly on the internet or something.

Boy howdy would this be a thing to search for.

Max got up, took off her hoodie, and walked towards Victoria’s window.

There wasn’t anything interesting to look at.

But maybe that’s why both of them liked staring out of it, anyway.

 

Max only returned to reality when she heard Victoria’s door opening and closing again.

Max carefully turned around to see a gently-smiling Victoria with a new bottled water.

She tossed the bottle onto the couch.

She hadn’t even opened it.

“So.”

Max’s attention went back to Victoria.

“You’re staying, then.”

Max nodded.

“Yeah.”

Victoria pursed her lips.

Max couldn’t read her face, again.

She took a few steps closer.

So did Max.

They met in the middle of her room.

Victoria just bit her lip for a few seconds.

Max looked down.

Victoria’s hands slowly snaked their ways to Max’s hands.

Max stayed perfectly still as Victoria blended together a combination of just touching and dragging her nails along the skin, there.

“So you trust me, then.”

Max looked back up.

Her breathing hitched when she saw the look on Victoria’s face.

It was so somber, so gentle.

She looked like a totally different person when she wasn’t trying to project austerity and aloofness.

There was just something so warm about the way her lips curled up into that smile that Max hadn’t seen before.

No part of this felt healthy.

But it was becoming easier to believe it was, in some way.

Max nodded.

“I do.”

She felt more assured of this. At least for now.

Victoria’s nails dug in and very methodically made their way up the underside of Max’s arms.

Their pace was so agonizing.

Max didn’t try to steady her breathing, this time.

She knew she couldn’t control it when Victoria got handsy, anyway.

“And you want me to keep touching you, and teach you.”

Max nodded again.

“Yes.”

Victoria suddenly scraped her nails straight up and broke them away when they ran out of skin to torment.

Max didn’t try to suppress the unsteady, shaky moan-like gasp that left her.

She knew she couldn’t control that, either, around Victoria.

Victoria took a few steps backwards and crossed her arms again.

“Alright. Show me, then. Strip.”

Max rubbed at her shoulder.

Victoria wasn’t going to look away.

This was really going to happen.

Max couldn’t look Victoria in the eyes as she hooked her fingers under her own shirt and lifted it up and away.

She tossed it to where she thought her hoodie was.

Max was pretty sure her blush was going from ear to ear, now.

Victoria didn’t move a muscle.

Max stared at some part of the wall as she carefully removed her jeans, as well.

She kicked them off towards the couch.

Max looked back up to Victoria.

She half expected this whole thing to come crashing down, like it was some kind of elaborate game.

Victoria would have her phone out, she would have been recording the whole thing, Max would be subjugated further.

But that isn’t what happened.

Victoria was just standing there, watching Max.

Her face still hadn’t shifted away from that very warm expression.

It put Max at a bit more ease.

Until Victoria frowned slightly, anyway.

Then she shifted around on her feet.

“No, all of the way.”

Max opened her mouth to say something.

The words died in her throat, though, and she just closed it.

She hesitated for long enough that she expected Victoria to start tearing into her again.

But she didn’t.

She just waited patiently until Max eventually got to removing her bra, and kicking off her panties.

Even when Max’s instincts immediately had herself covering up what she could to keep herself decent, nothing derisive came out.

And when Max could find the nerve to look back up to Victoria, she had found that warm smile, again.

Victoria took a few steps closer.

She traced a few fingers along Max’s chin and neckline.

Max shivered, and not just because she felt much colder without any clothing on.

Victoria removed her hand, and slowly made her way around to behind Max.

Max still didn’t move a muscle. Her hands were still covering herself.

Her blush felt like it was going to consume her entire body at this rate.

Victoria put her hands on Max’s shoulders from behind, and began to rub quite vigorously.

_Oh._

That felt way too good.

It was alarmingly relaxing.

Max stopped shivering.

She closed her eyes.

She could feel Victoria’s breath on her ear.

“One of the most important things about this whole ordeal is _power exchange_. Learning to just … let go. To stop worrying about everything. You’re not responsible for anything in here but listening to what I have to say. The world doesn’t exist outside of this bedroom when I touch you, like this.”

Victoria’s words were barely above a whisper.

Max considered them carefully while enjoying the attention of the shoulder rub.

She didn’t protest when Victoria’s hands moved down Max’s arms, came to about her wrists, and pulled them up and away from covering her body and keeping her decent.

“All you have to do is just listen to what I have to say, and do it.”

Max sighed contently.

“Say it.”

Max’s eyes opened and she blinked rapidly.

“W-what –“

“Repeat what I just said.”

Victoria’s nails scraped along Max’s wrists briefly.

That wasn’t helping anything, but that was probably the point.

“I-I uhm.”

Max didn’t have much practice talking like _this_.

She swallowed, hard.

“All I have to do is just listen to what you have to say, and do it.”

“Again.”

Max closed her eyes.

It came out more easily this time.

“All I have to do is just listen to what you have to say, and do it.”

“Again. Don’t stop repeating until I tell you to stop.”

Max gulped again, but she started to repeat as she was told to.

Victoria released Max’s wrists, but flicked at her ear when those wrists slowly started to fall back down to her sides.

She just had to keep them up by her neck, she guessed.

“All I have to do is just listen to what you have to say, and do it.”

“Keep your eyes closed.”

Max wasn’t planning on opening them, anyway.

Well.

That wasn’t quite right.

Max’s eyes would have shot wide open when Victoria’s nails found the insides of her thighs and dug in, there.

Her breathing was never quite stable, but this unbalanced her to the degree that she almost couldn’t continue her mantra.

But whenever Max tripped over her words or hesitated or faltered, Victoria’s hands stopped moving entirely, and didn’t move again until Max could repeat it coherently and clearly.

Victoria’s fingers and nails traveled all over Max’s body.

They went up along her belly, down her sides, along her legs, along the contours of her neckline and breasts.

Max eventually figured out Victoria was training her.

The mantra got easier to say every time she repeated it.

Max didn’t know how much time Victoria had spent roaming her body before Victoria’s hands came to rub at her shoulders again.

She did know that she was sweating now and that she had never felt so pent-up before in her life.

“Lower your hands. You can open your eyes, now.”

Max opened her eyes and allowed her hands to fall down into loose fists by her sides.

Victoria was behind her again.

“All I have to do is just listen to what you have to say, and do it.”

“Good girl.”

Max shivered slightly. Partly because of the affection she heard, partly because Victoria bit at her ear after she said it.

“You can stop repeating that, now.”

Max did, but the phrase was basically on repeat on her mind, now.

In hindsight, that’s probably why Victoria had her repeating it like that.

Victoria gently wrapped one of her hands around Max’s and tugged her towards the bed.

Max felt like she was in a stupor as she got dragged over to it.

She should have been more worried about everything else she _was_ worried about, earlier.

But all she had to do was just listen to what Victoria had to say, and do it.

And it was an alarmingly relaxing thought.

Max found herself laying on the bed before she knew much else was going on.

Victoria was lying beside her.

There must have been something worrying on Max’s face because Victoria’s own scrunched up.

She then carefully grasped one of Max’s hands, and interlocked their fingers there.

She squeezed.

“Max. Be with me for a few seconds.”

Max didn’t really know what she meant but she looked directly at Victoria either way.

“I’m going to explore that other thing that you enjoyed, okay? I’m going to start talking down to you, and I will ignore anything you say. If you want me to stop …”

She squeezed Max’s hand again,

“Then let this hand go, okay?”

Max nodded mutely.

“Close your eyes.”

Max did.

She felt Victoria nestling in real close to her, again.

Max’s mouth was agape without her intending it to by the time Victoria’s breathing collided with her ear.

“How does it feel to be the biggest _fucking_ loser in this school?”

Max flinched, but reciprocated when Victoria squeezed her hand.

Victoria kept her voice as a whisper, but there was a sharpness to each word, and some venom back in her timbre.

Max recognized it as the tone Victoria used yesterday, when she was pinning Max.

Some pieces fell into place, now.

As unsteady as her breathing was, it was nothing compared to how shallow and rapid it became when Victoria’s other hand came to directly and forcefully grab at her groin.

It felt like over-stimulation.

But Max’s stupor was keeping her from resisting, or really doing much else other than moaning, uselessly.

It had her squirming around a little bit, at least.

Victoria wasn’t groping aimlessly.

Not more than a few seconds later, the viciously firm grasp turned into delicate, careful, methodical rubbing and teasing.

These periods are when Victoria talked.

“How does it feel to have no friends in this school?”

And immediately after she finished speaking, the hand’s attention would become righteously vigorous and exceptionally quick.

Max was totally unprepared for such a coordinated assault on both her psyche and body.

But Victoria must have been anticipating that, too.

When Max felt like she was just getting _too_ excited, Victoria stopped both the words and the direct stimulation, and just raked her nails along Max’s inner thighs, instead.

“How does it feel knowing you’ll never be able to please a woman fully?”

Max knew there were tears, at some point.

She didn’t remember starting to cry.

She didn’t remember having the feelings to cry, either.

But she was entirely overwhelmed at this point and essentially malleable putty for Victoria to play with.

Victoria squeezed her hand.

Max squeezed back.

“You’re just a useless, pathetic _fuck_ toy.”

Max flinched again.

That one cut deep.

But Victoria must have planned for that one to be the most severe, since immediately afterwards, the hand’s attention picked up and never died down.

Not until Max’s body went all tense and she couldn’t force her lungs to breathe.

Not until Max slumped against the bed pathetically, drained in more ways than she thought was even possible.

Not until Max let go of Victoria’s hand and was crying for real, in earnest, now.

Max wasn’t normal.

Normal people don’t enjoy being told things like this.

Normal people don’t cry after having sex. Or whatever that was.

Normal people don’t sleep with one another so quickly after becoming friendly. Or whatever this was.

Normal people don’t moan when you abuse them.

Normal women don’t feel like this for other women.

But Victoria felt differently.

“Shhh. It’s okay. This is normal, too.”

The gentle warmness in Victoria’s voice was back, again.

Even by the standards of softness from today, this voice was exceptionally warm and affectionate.

The venom was put away.

There were no spines left to skewer her.

Max didn’t want to believe her, but Victoria didn’t stop repeating it.

Max was broken in more ways than one, but Victoria’s arms were around her.

Max was broken, but she could feel one of Victoria’s hands making delicate patterns along her exposed back.

Max was broken, but she could feel Victoria’s warmth and the protective assurance of the blanket from the bed.

Max was broken, but Victoria’s chin was perched on her head and it was forcing her head to fit into the little space around Victoria’s shoulders and neck.

Max was broken, but.

Victoria was here for her.

 

Max didn’t know how much later it was when she felt … better.

When the tears, stopped, anyway.

She blinked, and pulled her head away slightly to look up at Victoria.

Victoria had been sleeping.

The movement awoke her, however slight it was. She stirred to look down at Max.

Max was expecting her to be mean again now that she got what she wanted.

Now that she knew for certain just how broken Max was.

Instead, she just smiled sweetly.

“Not now. Just sleep.”

Victoria kissed at her forehead.

Max didn’t have the words and still felt so overwhelmed and drained.

But she was smiling when she rested her face back along Victoria’s neck and shoulder lines.

She could do that.

Max was broken and not normal.

But Victoria was here for her, and Victoria wasn’t normal, either.

That was something.

Something more than she had yesterday.

She fell asleep.


	3. Fantasy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Victoria talk about their shared night.
> 
> Max has a fantasy.
> 
> Victoria is a fucking tease.

Max didn’t really have a regular sleeping schedule.

Even so, it felt like she woke up far too late.

She had an awful headache.

Her whole body felt sore.

She groaned.

Did she end up at a Vortex Club party somehow?

She opened her eyes and ---

This was not her bed.

This was not her room.

Max freaked out for all of a few seconds until she saw the expensive TV on the far side of the room.

She’d recognize that TV anywhere.

She wasn’t in her room, but she was close.

This was Victoria’s room.

She blinked her eyes rapidly, hoping that would help to wake herself up a bit more.

She pulled off the blanket and rested her feet off of the side.

She felt cold.

Max then realized she was naked.

Max never slept naked.

With a blush, she crossed her legs and wrapped an arm about her breasts to keep herself decent.

“Like I haven’t seen worse.”

Victoria’s voice.

Max blinked again, and looked to the source of the words.

Victoria was sitting absent-mindedly on her couch, picking through photos on her digital camera.

She looked like the Victoria Max was familiar with; aloof, slightly annoyed, emotionally-distant.

It made Max a little nervous.

“I-I know, I just …”

She trailed off again.

She really didn’t have any logical way to explain wanting to cover herself up, like this.

Not after last night.

Victoria sighed.

But it wasn’t annoyed-sounding, Max noticed.

She put her camera down and stood up.

Her arms were still crossed by the time she walked over to stand in front of Max.

Max looked to the floor.

Victoria’s hand came to Max’s chin.

It was more gentle, this time, when it lifted her to look up.

Victoria’s face was neutral, now, which was at least easier to look at.

“You don’t have to be scared to show me anything, Max. I’m not going to judge you.”

Max closed her eyes and breathed in deep.

The gentleness of Victoria’s tones eased her.

She opened her eyes, uncrossed her legs, and allowed her hands to fall down to just rest on the edge of the bed.

“Okay.”

Max smiled.

So did Victoria.

“Did you sleep well? I have some things to do, but I didn’t want you to wake up all alone.”

Max opened her mouth to say something.

That was really sweet of her.

It _would_ have been pretty bad for Max’s anxieties if she woke up in Victoria’s room all alone after last night.

Her smile got a bit wider.

“I uhm. I have a really bad headache, but … I think I’m going to be alright.”

Victoria released Max’s chin to re-cross her arms, and she nodded carefully.

“A lot of that was new to you, I know.”

Max bit her lip.

Not just ‘a lot’.

Could Max tell her that was her first time with someone else?

Victoria _did_ say she wasn’t going to judge her.

“Actually, A-all of it was new to me.”

Victoria’s expression dampened slightly, and she blinked once or twice.

Max felt self-conscious again.

“You’re a virgin?”

But at least Victoria’s words were still kind.

Max still blushed more intensely, though, and had to look away.

“I … I guess not anymore?”

Victoria sighed and sat down next to Max on the bed.

One of her arms came around to rub at Max’s opposite shoulder.

“I really wish I would have known that. I wouldn’t have been so … severe.”

Max turned her head and tried to look Victoria in the eyes.

Victoria sounded remorseful.

She really shouldn’t.

“No, no-no-no. I enjoyed last night.”

Max’s voice came out more quickly and with more force than she intended it to, but Victoria could absolutely _not_ think last night went poorly.

Max bit her lip again.

“You gave me the choice, remember? That’s what I chose. That’s what I wanted. And I don’t regret it.”

Victoria hesitated for a few moments, considering, and then sighed again and closed her eyes.

She didn’t stop rubbing Max’s shoulder.

Which was good, because she was warm, and Max already felt a little cold.

“I guess you have a point there. Alright.”

It was quiet for a few moments.

It wasn’t as awkward as Max remembered silence around Victoria being.

It was kind of weird, considering she was naked, and Victoria was touching her.

Maybe that’s what was making it less awkward.

Max wasn’t normal.

“S-so um. You said we should be able to communicate, right?”

Victoria nodded slowly, still with her eyes closed.

“I want to know. What uh. What does this make us, now?”

Victoria pursed her lips together into a fine line.

She patted at Max’s shoulder for a few seconds before opening her eyes again to look at her.

“I don’t know.”

“I ---“

Victoria cut Max off by placing just a single finger on her lips.

She went quiet, again.

“I don’t know what it makes us _right now_. But, I know that I trust you, and you trust me, and that's a lot more than I can say for most people I know. I think I just need more time to figure out what you are, in full, to me.”

Max empathized with Victoria’s words.

If she was better with them, she’d probably be saying something similar.

“So, here is what I would say. At the very least, you’re a trusted friend with benefits. We’ll give it a little while to see if it’s something more, or something less, or maybe it's just fine at that.”

Max nodded carefully.

She didn’t know if she’d be comfortable calling Victoria anything more after just one, albeit quite eventful night.

She wanted some time to pick apart her own emotions and feelings and see how much of it was a crush, how much of it was tied up in her being Not Normal, and how much of it was left over just for Victoria, anyway.

But Victoria was right.

There was a lot of trust involved with this, and so far, Max had been entirely justified in placing that trust into Victoria. This was the most salient part of their relationship, for now.

“Okay.”

Max hesitated.

“Where’s my clothes?”

Victoria chuckled quietly and stood up.

She walked back over to the couch.

Max followed her with her eyes the entire way there.

She ended up getting a faceful of her hoodie and jeans, as well as her t-shirt, after a few seconds.

Max shook her head and put her clothes on either side of her.

She expected to be assaulted by some more clothing, but.

Nothing else came.

She blinked and looked back to Victoria, who was back to going through photos on her camera.

Max’s blush deepened.

“Um. Underwear?”

Victoria turned on her heel and lowered her camera.

She had a predatory grin.

Max wasn’t sure, exactly, when that became kind of hot, to her.

“I was thinking you’d go without that, for today.”

Max’s eyes widened.

She didn’t know what to think of this proposition.

She stammered and failed to start a sentence a few times.

She looked down, nervously.

She hadn’t seen her underwear earlier. Victoria had probably already done what she wanted with it.

Victoria paused for a few seconds and walked back over to Max.

“Hey.”

Max looked up to Victoria without needing guidance from her hand, this time.

Victoria’s face was a bit softer.

She was still holding the camera with both of her hands, down by her belly.

She leaned over so that she could lower her voice down to that barely-above-a-whisper that Max was becoming increasingly familiar with.

“Think of it this way. Whenever your jeans ride up in _just that way_ , I want you to be able to think of me.”

Max had to admit that was a pretty attractive thought.

It wasn’t making her blush rescind in the slightest, though.

But it was okay.

Victoria could look at it all she wanted, now.

“O-oh. I see. So just every time …”

Max trailed off.

Victoria broke away one of her hands to put it up against Max’s face.

At first, the hand covered her mouth, with her fingers coming into contact on her cheeks on either side.

Then, it carefully moved downwards.

By the time it reached her neck, nails were involved.

Max closed her eyes.

“Just remember _why_ you’re not wearing them. Why you don’t _deserve_ to wear them.”

This seductive low whisper Victoria had going on was really fucking hot now and Max didn’t care if it was totally obvious the effect it was having on her.

Max’s mouth was agape and she didn’t care.

Her breathing was short and rapid, but steady and even.

Victoria’s hand pulled away by the time it reached Max’s collar bones and just grasped at her own camera again.

“Not to get things too frisky in the morning, or anything.”

Victoria was such a tease.

Max still didn’t open her eyes.

“Okay.”

Max’s voice came out like a sigh.

She just had to spend a few moments to recompose herself.

Eventually, she swallowed, and had the presence of mind to keep her mouth closed.

When she opened her eyes again, Victoria was looking down to her camera, again.

That was okay.

Max was getting cold now.

So she started to put on her clothes.

Almost immediately she could tell this would be a problem, though.

Just the little bit of attention Victoria had given her this morning, particularly as of a few minutes ago, had her nipples stiff.

And the friction there against her t-shirt was a new, interesting experience.

Her tee had only been on for a few seconds and she wasn’t moving all that much but the contact was already maddening and impossibly distracting.

If the objective of this was to remind her how Not Normal she was, well, job well fucking done.

Max was going to be a wreck all day long at this rate.

When Max was done getting dressed, Victoria said she had to go.

She said Max could just let herself out of her room whenever she wanted to.

Max considered snooping, since she’s always wanted to see what Victoria’s room was like in more relief.

But some part of her guilted her into staying put and just thinking about things until she had classes to go to.

Max didn’t want to do anything that could hurt the trust between them, even if it was a relatively minor offense.

 

Max should have never listened to Victoria.

She felt like a fizzy soda all day long, just ready for someone to accidentally pull the tab to her can.

It wasn’t even so much the restriction placed upon her to not wear underwear.

The actual mechanics of that were also quite distracting, but.

It was nothing compared to the _thought_ of what might happen.

It was nothing compared to the elaborate scenarios she imagined in which this might become incredibly embarrassing for her in short order.

How it seemed like _everyone_ knew from the looks they gave her in classes.

It felt like everyone could make out every detail of her blush.

Every little shiver in her body.

Every little nuance in how Max adjusted how she moved and walked to not create undue friction to places that couldn’t bear the load right now.

Cognitively she knew that no one could realistically make out the definition of her nipples underneath both tee and hoodie.

But this part of her brain was surprisingly ineffectual right now, and it still felt like Max was broadcasting to everyone who was even paying the slightest bit of attention that she was Not Normal.

How utterly doomed was she if this is how she behaved whenever Victoria just teased her a little bit? Right after being laid, too.

Totally, thoroughly, unacceptably doomed.

 

Max was walking to lunch after her morning classes.

Her one respite was that, in a crowd of dozens and dozens of students, most of whom drew more attention than she did by default, her being Not Normal was not the subject of intense scrutiny.

No one would know.

It wasn’t like in class, where there was all of the time in the world for people who knew her better to pick up subtle signals that something was off.

She tightly hugged some books to her chest, because she thought that would help to hide her affliction more, somehow, some way.

And her head was bowed, so that no one could really make out any blush on her face.

This wasn’t unusual behavior for her, anyway.

What was unusual was someone who grasped at her shoulder.

Somebody and some body in front of her.

She paused and looked upwards.

Victoria.

 _Oh_.

Then,

_Oh no._

What did she want?

Even after their morning conversation, Max was under no pretenses that Victoria would want to be seen in public with her, quite yet.

Their tryst was private, and would be scandalizing and sacrilegious to both of their social circles if the information were to come to light.

Yet Victoria was being Not Normal here as well.

She was smiling brightly.

“Have you been thinking of me?”

Max’s mouth went wide open.

Victoria was _not_ controlling her volume correctly for the content of her words and people would definitely hear her.

Max quickly scanned around the hustle and bustle to ensure that no one had.

That no one was staring.

But all this resulted in was her being caught totally off-guard when Victoria snaked a hand into Max’s jeans.

And left her wanting for more.

Max had at least the presence of mind to bite her bottom lip severely to choke off any moaning.

She still didn’t do anything to protest Victoria’s actions, though.

Max’s hands were occupied, afterall.

Or at least, that’s why she told herself she didn’t resist it.

Carefully, so not as to make a scene, Max moved her attention back to Victoria.

“H-here? N-now? People are …”

Max had to try very hard to steady her breathing just long enough to get some coherent words out.

“People will notice and …”

Victoria didn’t stop smiling.

“Let them stare.”

Max’s mouth went wide open again, aghast.

Victoria took the opportunity to move her fingers up just a bit more, and aggressively assault Max’s most sensitive spot.

Max couldn’t help it anymore.

 

She moaned.

 

The world stopped around her.

People were definitely staring now.

Some phones were out.

Victoria was totally oblivious, somehow.

Max looked down to try and hide herself from the pressure of everyone’s gaze and ---

 

Max woke up.

_Holy shit._

She was still in her last class before lunch.

Her phone was vibrating loudly on her desk.

“Max! No texting in class!”

The part of her mind that wasn’t driven by silly cognition immediately moved to silence her phone.

The rest of her was just stewing, quietly horrified.

That was a day dream.

She was officially day dreaming now about being molested in public by a possessive Victoria.

Can you even have wet dreams during the day?

Probably, if you’re Not Normal.

After she smiled sweetly to the teacher and gave her best, warmest apology – cursing very seriously to herself that her voice sounded too uneven and dazed – she shoved the phone to her lap, underneath her desk, and tried to read the text as discretely as possible.

It was from Victoria.

_Wake up, nerd. You’re drooling._

Max’s blush deepened and she belatedly raised her hand to wipe away at her mouth.

How mortifying.

Could she tell Victoria about this?

Could she tell _literally anyone else_ about this?

Could she risk Victoria becoming so bold in public, like that?

It was so confusing and disquieting.

But Victoria had calmly explained things, last night.

She could have done whatever she wanted to Max's exhausted body, last night.

And she didn’t.

All of the trust she had placed in Victoria so far had only been rewarded with Victoria helping her.

She’d have to tell Victoria about this.

Victoria had earned that.

Later.

 

At the end of her day, Max folded onto her bed uselessly.

Her hoodie and tee came off somewhere along the way.

She considered getting her jeans off, too, but that was an awful lot of effort right now.

Max texted Victoria to ask her to come over.

She said she didn’t need to knock, anymore.

Max kind of imagined she wasn’t going to, regardless, but it felt good to ensure that kind of violation was explicitly green-lit.

Max just put her arm over her head, with the spot opposite her elbow shielding her eyes.

Victoria entered her room, and sat down politely on the couch opposite Max.

“So.”

Max groaned, and carefully sat up, resting her legs off of the edge of the bed.

Both of her hands gripped weakly at the same edge.

“Hi to you too.”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“Like you haven’t stopped texting me since this morning.”

Victoria _did_ have a point.

Max just bit her lip.

She decided to move on.

“I uhm. Want to tell you something.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow.

She uncrossed her legs and put her phone away.

“You have my attention, then.”

Max looked down to the floor and sighed severely.

But then she remembered herself and looked to meet Victoria’s eyes, again.

Victoria had gotten good at softening her face up when Max needed it the most, to calm her nerves.

She could keep eye contact.

“I had a… wet dream, I guess, about you, in class, today.”

It was a little painful coming out, but Victoria kept her face soft and warm.

“Is that all?”

Max kind of thought that alone was Not Normal, but it apparently didn’t even register as an event to Victoria.

“N-no. Um. You groped me in public until I moaned and people stared.”

Victoria snorted and quickly raised a hand up to cover her mouth.

Max’s blush consumed whatever it damn well pleased at this point and she just looked down at the ground, miserably.

After a few seconds of recomposing herself, Victoria sighed and stood up.

She walked over.

“Hey.”

Max looked up.

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Max blinked, and groaned.

She looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes.

“What do you _mean_ there’s nothing wrong with that, Victoria? I’m a literal hot box and can’t focus for ---“

One of Victoria’s fingers came to rest on Max’s lips and hush her.

Max stayed quiet.

“And there’s _absolutely nothing wrong_ with having fantasies.”

They were both quiet for a few moments, now.

Victoria sat down beside her.

Max was still looking blindly to the ceiling.

“Look. Max. Part of this whole … situation is you’re going to be thinking about sex a bit differently. Your mind is going to wander to find more fantastical, unrealistic scenarios to explore things that turn you on.”

Max absorbed Victoria’s useful words.

“And while I _absolutely adore_ the idea of just finger-fucking you in public for everyone to see, that’s not going to happen _in reality_. You’re going to have to learn how to separate the two.”

Max eventually nodded carefully after some consideration.

There was another minute or two of silence.

Then,

“So … what, it’s just useless ideas that make me unproductive for a while?”

Victoria sighed.

“No, they’re typically not entirely useless. They’re just going to be severely exaggerated when your mind is left to conjure up whatever it wants.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“As an example, instead of just me fucking you in public, we can start playing with more … plausible scenarios. There’s a window in my room, you know? We can open the blinds slightly. Realistically, no one would be able to see anything, but …”

Victoria trailed off to let Max’s mind fill in all of the blanks.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Max decided she liked that idea.

She smiled and breathed in deep, letting out a very careful, slow exhale.

“Okay. Thanks. I get it now, I think.”

She looked back down to Victoria and they shared a smile.

Then, Max bit her lip.

“Um. C-can I wear underwear tomorrow? I don’t … I’m not going to _survive_ at this rate.”

Victoria smiled a bit wider.

That was not the response Max was expecting.

Her eyes went wide.

Victoria looked off to one of Max’s walls.

“Hmmm, well. I _suppose_ that _depends_ on what _you_ are willing to do in exchange for _me_.”

Victoria spoke very carefully, delicately, and severely over-enunciated everything again.

This was a teasing tone, Max realized.

“L-like what?”

Victoria looked back to Max.

Her smile turned into a grin, then became predatory.

Max’s breathing hitched.

Victoria shoved Max down onto her bed.

Max made a surprised squeal.

She hardly even had the time to process Victoria flopping her so she was flat on her back and then coming to lay down _right_ on top of her.

She did notice how close Victoria’s face was, though.

Their noses were no more than an inch apart.

She also noticed the smell of lavender.

Max liked lavender.

Victoria pinned Max’s wrists above her head.

Max didn’t resist any of this, but it didn’t stop it from overwhelming her.

Victoria’s tone dropped down low again, in the voice Max knew only she was aware of.

“Well… there’s other ways to remind you of _your place_. Maybe I let you wear your underwear but take away your privileges to masturbate?”

Max stammered and tried and failed to start a sentence a hilariously large number of times.

Victoria was all smiles as she lowered her head down and bit down at some of the skin on Max’s neck.

That would have been enough to drive Max nuts, but Victoria also had the idea to rub her knee right up against Max’s groin in the most forceful of ways, through the fabric of her jeans.

Max bucked her chest forward unconsciously and closed her eyes. She tilted her head back without meaning to.

This was too much.

Max was going to go cross-eyed.

But as soon as Victoria had started all of this, she was done with it.

She released Max’s wrists, peeled herself off, and just stood up with a dumb grin on her face.

It took Max entirely too long to realize that she was probably not going to get laid tonight, and just sat up with a frustrated whine.

She rubbed at her wrists while she tried so very hard to calm herself down.

But the way Victoria was looking at her was just not helping one goddamn bit.

“Your choice, Max _ine._ No underwear, or no touching yourself.”

Max whined out of frustration again when she realized that Victoria did all of that just to rile her up and make this choice even more difficult.

Max considered her options. It was difficult, but she could deal.

Eventually,

“N-no masturbating … I-I g-guess.”

Victoria smiled wider.

She’d hurt her cheeks if she kept this up.

“Good. I’m glad we’ve settled that, then.”

Victoria’s tone was inappropriately chipper and friendly, like she was talking about the weather or something.

She just casually turned on her heel to walk out of Max’s room.

But she paused at the threshold, and looked back.

“Oh, and, don’t try and sneak one past me. I can hear you doing it from my room.”

Max’s jaw dropped, and Victoria just hummed pleasantly as she left Max’s room.

Max couldn’t even fucking tell if Victoria was just messing with her.

But she wasn’t going to try her luck.

And if she was being honest with herself, she didn’t really want to betray Victoria’s trust on this issue, either.

Not when she had been so kind and useful whenever Max confided into her.

Still.

She rubbed her legs together.

This night was going to be awfully long.

Max’s phone vibrated.

Text from Victoria.

Already?

_And you won’t want to think too much about me using you in public, or tonight is really going to be hard on you. Oops._

Max groaned viciously and tossed her phone towards her couch.

Then she just welded her eyes closed and looked to her ceiling.

Victoria was _such_ a fucking tease.

Max was not going to get a goddamn thing done tonight, at all.

This was going to be the longest night of her life.

But at least tomorrow would be easier.

And some part of her was really starting to enjoy the little ways that Victoria was coming to control these aspects of her life.

But Max didn’t want to think too much about it since her night was going to be painful enough as it was.

Instead, she put her tee back on and found one of her text books to stare at.

She also silenced her phone since Victoria must have found this endlessly amusing and hadn’t stopped texting her since.

Max just hoped she didn’t get lost in another fantasy.

She probably wouldn’t be able to get any sleep at all if she did.


	4. Little Bell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria is nervous.
> 
> Max is nervous.
> 
> One of her fantasies comes true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content notice:
> 
> Consensual Non-consent/Roleplay (Rape Roleplay)
> 
> Moderate to Severe Degradation/Humiliation/Verbal Abuse
> 
> Mild (?) Foot Fetish
> 
>  
> 
> I consider this a heavier scene due to the presence of a non-passing degradation fetish and the rape roleplay.  
> Stay safe, kids.

Despite all indications to the contrary, Max did actually survive the week.

For the most part, they both had other obligations that kept them busy during the school week.

Other friends, other classes, other assignments.

Victoria said an important part of the arrangement was learning how to balance out everything.

After all, they were getting along just fine before they entangled themselves together.

Max’s personal time was just more _exciting_ these days.

Victoria still didn’t let her masturbate, and Max still couldn’t compel herself to defy her.

Victoria was still a huge fucking tease and never stopped blowing up her phone when she sensed some vulnerability.

She even started to touch Max in a variety of ways when and if they passed each other in the hall ways.

Just little bumps.

Just little scratches.

Just little touches.

Not enough that anyone uninitiated could notice them.

But Max sure did.

Max had more fantasies over a greater variety of areas.

Victoria knew about each and every one of them.

She would often tease her about them and incorporate them into further flirting.

Max was kind of surprised that absolutely nothing she came up with seemed to discourage or abhor Victoria in anyway.

Victoria seemed to share each and every thing Max told her about.

Even more, she seemed to genuinely enjoy them.

She had very particular ways of phrasing things over flirty texts to excite those parts of Max.

Which just made not masturbating even harder, but.

Max wanted another night with Victoria.

For a variety of reasons.

She wanted to see if that first time was just a fluke.

She wanted to see how Victoria handled it when she had a wider variety of interests she knew Max shared.

She had a fantasy that was becoming a regular fixture of her wetter nights. It was something that they could both play out just between themselves.

She also wanted to get off.

Victoria kept telling her the more her pleasure was delayed and controlled, the more exhilarating the experience would be.

Max just imagined she wanted a pathetically needy and desperate Max to work with.

But that was okay.

Since Max _also_ wanted Victoria to have a pathetically needy and desperate Max to work with.

Victoria gave her a date.

This Friday night.

She didn’t have to ask twice.

 

That Friday night, Max was pacing nervously in her room.

She’d been thinking about this all week, of course.

They’d already discussed what would happen tonight, a lot, but still –

Victoria entered her room.

Max stopped pacing and tried to calm her breathing.

Victoria sat down on Max’s couch. Max sat down on the edge of her bed.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I don’t want you to feel pressured in ---“

Victoria had tried this line a few times now.

Max wasn’t having it.

“No, I want to.”

Max tried to say it as firmly as she could, this time.

Victoria must have been worried about this, too, if she was trying to give Max an out literally a few minutes before when they would start.

She was just a lot better at not showing it.

Victoria sighed severely and nodded.

She closed her eyes.

“Alright then. Same deal as we discussed, then. You’re going to be a pathetic loser and I’m going to be a fucking bitch, and somewhere along the line you’re going to get fucked into the ground.”

Max blushed and looked down to the floor.

Victoria’s vulgarity tended to have that effect on her.

Max was pretty sure that’s why she did it, though.

“Y-yeah, something … like that.”

Max hesitated, and looked up.

“Can we still do just a little bit in the hall ways?”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“ _Fine_. I’m pulling you in if so much as a _rat_ looks, though.”

Max smiled sweetly.

“Is the idea of you manhandling me supposed to be a downgrade, or …?”

Victoria rolled her eyes again.

Max didn’t have the nerve to tease Victoria very often.

That part of her largely died when she stopped talking to Chloe.

But by now, she just felt so comfortable talking to Victoria about these things, she couldn’t help it.

“Whatever.”

That was all that needed to be said, for now.

Her phone then beeped.

It must have been a timer.

“Alright. Good. Great. Wonderful.”

Victoria stood up, suddenly.

She sounded nervous.

Max stood up as well.

She didn’t really know what to say to calm her nerves.

Max didn’t even know what to say to calm her _own_ nerves.

But Victoria sighed.

She walked towards Max until they were adjacent.

She uncrossed her arms, grabbed both of Max’s hands, and interlocked their fingers.

She squeezed tightly.

“You still have the bell, right?”

Max looked up and nodded carefully.

“Yeah.”

“You know I won’t stop until you drop it, right? Nothing you say or do. Only the bell.”

Max bit her lip for a bit.

Victoria reiterated this an awful lot.

But then she just nodded again.

“Yeah.”

Victoria squeezed Max’s hands again.

“Alright. Don’t worry about offending me by dropping it or ---“

Max rolled her eyes, now.

Victoria reiterated _this_ an awful lot, too.

“ _I know._ ”

Victoria sighed and closed her eyes.

“Okay, okay, okay. Just making sure.”

She rested her head atop Max’s for a little while.

It was nice.

Max liked that their height difference allowed for them to fit together like this.

They stayed like that for a minute or two.

Eventually, Victoria separated.

She breathed in deep, and steeled her voice.

It sounded totally different than it had a little while ago.

There were some spines and venom that Max hadn’t heard from her in over a week.

“ _Whatever_ , loser. Five minutes. _Don’t_ make me wait.”

With that, Victoria turned and walked out of Max’s room.

Max knew what she had to do in five minutes.

She had to lose her underwear.

And try pretend she hadn’t met the Victoria that became her friend.

Or whatever this was, now.

\---

About five minutes later, Max _had_ lost her underwear.

But nothing else.

She was wearing her usual hoodie, tee, and jeans.

Her hoodie was zipped up.

She was standing nervously outside of Victoria’s room.

This was real.

This was really real.

They were about to engage in Max’s most persistent fantasy.

It filled her with all kinds of anxious butterflies.

But it also excited her in a very dangerous sort of way.

She didn’t know all of what was going to happen, tonight, despite it being her fantasy.

Victoria said she would try out some new things that they hadn’t discussed yet, to see if they caught Max’s fancy.

Max rolled her eyes.

She could already hear Victoria prattling on: _You’re only going to get kinkier from here on out. No backsies._

Max then gripped the special bell that Victoria had given to her tightly.

It was designed to not ring so long as you hold it, but would make a sound as it was dropped.

No hesitation. It had to be dropped the moment she was getting uncomfortable. That was the only way they could communicate clearly when Victoria was ‘in character’.

But Max trusted Victoria.

And she knew what her own Not Normal body wanted, now.

She knocked on the door.

She tried to complete getting into the headspace of the Max as of a week or so ago.

She tried to remember all of those glares and vicious barbs Victoria had offered her for months.

This had to have been the only time in her life when she wanted to be _more_ nervous and self-conscious.

“ _Um._ Who the _fuck_ is at my door this late?”

Max shuddered.

Victoria was awfully good at going back to who she was.

Max wondered briefly how long she had been learning how to act like that.

“M-max.”

Max actually didn’t have try too hard to make her voice come out as nervous as she felt.

Just hearing the old, annoyed, bitchy Victoria was enough.

“What the _fuck_.”

_It’s the beta cat._

Max heard Victoria’s hi-fi turn on.

Not that Victoria’s hi-fi was unusual for a Friday afternoon, but the music was slightly different from what Max was used to hearing coming out of Victoria’s room.

She didn’t get very long to analyze her thoughts on the music, though, since Victoria opened the door to her room.

Even though Max did actually notice Victoria this time, she stayed quiet, and just rubbed at her arm.

Victoria’s face was a harsh stone.

Max could feel it starting to be used to crush her, again.

Victoria frowned.

“Hello? Is there anyone in there?”

She raised a hand and knocked obnoxiously at the top of Max’s head.

Max still didn’t respond.

She looked down to her shoes and mumbled something.

“ _God_ you’re fucking pathetic sometimes. Do you even know what you’re doing?”

Max could feel the blush coming her cheeks, now.

It helped that she was still in the hallway and that technically, anyone on this level could leave their room at any time to see what was going on.

“And that jacket. Like I don’t know what’s underneath.”

One of Victoria’s hands effortlessly unzipped Max’s hoodie.

“Garbage. What an ugly shirt.”

Max shifted around some more.

Victoria hesitated for a few seconds.

Then,

“Take it off. It’ll be part of my _Spring Loser_ Collection _._ ”

Max tightened the grip she had on the bell in one of her hands.

“W-what, I can’t …”

Max kicked one of her shoes at the ground, weakly.

She still didn’t look up.

“Have it your way.”

Victoria shot one of her hands down, hooked her hand on the hem of Max’s tee, and pulled it straight up.

She folded the fabric over Max’s head.

Max’s breathing became unsteady and quick, now.

Her hoodie would prevent a bystander from seeing much, but they’d still be able to see _something_ weird was going on.

Victoria ensured that no one _was_ looking on, though, and leaned in closer.

“Well. What do we have here. No bra. Someone’s awful _fucking_ slutty…”

Her voice took on that dangerously seductive tone again.

She flicked at a nipple for good measure.

Max closed her eyes and sucked in a harsh breath.

Not like she could see a whole lot through the fabric of her shirt, anyway.

“I wonder …”

Victoria shoved a hand into the front of Max’s jeans and unceremoniously groped for a few seconds.

She avoided any direct contact to where Max wanted her hand to be the most.

“N-no, Victoria, You can’t …”

Max moved one of her hands over to try and stop Victoria’s, but Victoria just held it uselessly away with her own free hand.

The nails dug into her wrists.

“Don’t you try and fucking touch me you little fuckbag.”

 _Now_ Victoria’s touch became direct. She used it to emphasize her last word.

Max moaned, uselessly.

“Uh-huh, just what I thought. Come on, loser.”

Victoria moved both of her hands to Max’s sides and all but picked her up to tug her into her room.

Max enjoyed it when Victoria physically shoved and manipulated her around, like this.

The door closed behind them.

They’d have more privacy, now.

And the music would help to drown out anything that seeped through.

Just as well, the person who would be most likely to hear them --- Victoria’s _other_ neighbor, Kate --- had taken to leaving her room on Friday afternoons. She didn’t like the music either, and had even less of a nerve in trying to confront Victoria about it.

Max ended up being awkwardly shoved near somewhere the middle of Victoria’s room.

She didn’t dare move a muscle.

“Now. Take off the fucking shirt.”

Victoria hadn’t softened or eased her tone up one bit since she started tearing into Max.

Just like in her fantasy.

“I-I can’t just ---“

Max could feel Victoria come up behind her.

Victoria spanked her.

“Did I stammer? No? Then cut the shit out and do what I said.”

Carefully, Max raised her hands up to put her tee back on, and peeled off her hoodie.

Victoria immediately kicked it far away.

Max removed her tee shirt.

Victoria kicked that away, too.

Max crossed one of her arms over her chest to keep herself decent.

Victoria spanked her again.

“I didn’t say you could cover up that pathetic whore body of yours. Don’t you move a _muscle_ without me telling you to.”

Max shivered as she lowered her arm again.

Victoria came around to Max’s front.

Max kept her gaze down at the floor.

Victoria’s hand unceremoniously grabbed at Max’s crotch again, this time, through the fabric of her jeans.

Max was breathing severely and openly through a mouth that simply refused to stay closed by now.

“I know what’s going on here. You can’t help yourself.”

Victoria leaned forward.

Max shivered again when she felt Victoria’s breath against one of her ears.

“You want me.  You’re just too much of a _pathetic little idiot_ to know how to approach someone like a normal person. So you’re surrendering your body, instead. Isn’t that right?”

Max hesitated, before nodding numbly.

Victoria moved the lower hand away from Max’s crotch to drag her nails up Max’s belly before harshly pinching at a nipple.

Max had no presence of mind or control over herself to help the shaky gasp of a moan that came out of her.

“Say it.”

Max didn’t hesitate in response.

“I want you. I’m surrendering my body to you.”

“Louder.”

Max gulped, but she obeyed, anyway.

“I want you. I’m surrendering my body to you.”

It was louder. No one _should_ be able to hear it over the music, but …

Victoria twisted the nipple she was still holding onto.  She bit at Max’s ear.

Max tightly closed her eyes and arched her back into the attention.

“Good girl.”

Victoria removed both of her hands and straightened her own back.

“So here’s the deal then. You’re my slave for the night. If you’re good, then _maybe_ , just _maybe_ , I’ll let you get off.”

Max nodded mutely.

Victoria then frowned.

“You do know what that is, don’t you? Getting off?”

Max shook her head slowly.

“N-no. I don’t know how to m-masturbate. That’s why I need someone like y-you.”

Even if it was a lie and entirely part of her fantasy, just forming the words and saying them were deeply humiliating to Max, and she knew the blush had to have been entirely covering her face, by now.

Victoria just rolled her eyes and raised a hand up to rub at her forehead.

“Jesus fucking Christ what a mess you are.”

She then just shook her head and crossed her arms.

“Alright. For someone as miserable as you, I’m only ‘Ma’am’ to you, got it? You don’t speak a word without me talking to you first.”

“W-what, I can’t …”

Victoria frowned deeply and narrowed her eyes.

Max tried to control her excitement at the intentional wrong move.

Victoria walked around behind Max and shoved her towards the bed.

She stopped just shy of it.

Victoria’s hands wrapped around and unhooked Max’s jeans, tugging them down and away.

Max kicked them off without being asked to.

“Bend over.”

“W-wait, Victoria, I’ll listen, please ---“

“ _Bend over._ ”

Max compiled. Her face rested against Victoria’s bed.

She still tightly gripped at the bell as Victoria maneuvered her arms behind her, and collected her wrists together.

“Don’t move a fucking muscle, you pathetic bitch.”

Max didn’t.

Not until she felt some leather material wrapping around her wrists, cementing them in place behind her back.

Then she shivered, and uselessly tested the strength of the restraints.

Her arms weren’t going anywhere.

She was now officially and functionally helpless to whatever Victoria wanted to do to her.

Her breathing wouldn’t be steadied for days, at this rate.

“This is a game to you. I can see that pussy of yours. You’re getting off from this. Well, game _over_.”

Victoria harshly spanked at one of Max’s exposed ass checks.

The position was pretty much ideal for this kind of spanking and Max couldn’t do a whole lot anymore, even if she wanted to.

“V-victoria, please, I’ll be ---“

Another spank.

“It’s ‘Ma’am’ to you, _bitch_. Got it?”

Max didn’t hesitate.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Victoria’s nails just danced along the skin instead of spanking it.

“Good girl. Was that so hard?”

Max just shivered.

“Now. You still need to be punished for your earlier rudeness. I’m going to spank you ten times. You’re going to count and thank me, each time. Got it, or do I need to speak slower so you can fucking understand?”

“I understand, Ma’am.”

Victoria spanked her again, harshly.

Only this time, her nails raked at the skin, afterwards.

That was new.

It was going to leave that skin more raw and sensitive to subsequent hits.

Max couldn’t help the moan that escaped her.

“I didn’t say you could moan, _bitch_. Now we’re up to 20, and I’m starting over.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Spank.

“One. Thank you, Ma’am.”

Spank.

“Two, Th –“

Spank.

“Three-thank-you-Ma’am –“

Spank.

“Four, thank you, Ma’am …”

Max made it all of the way to ten without incident.

But then Victoria stopped, and changed cheeks.

She harshly raked her nails along the skin there.

Her other hand slid up between Max’s legs and began to directly rub at her.

It was all deeply confounding and over-stimulating.

Victoria had never once asked her to _control_ her pathetic sounds of enjoyment and it felt so impossible to do, now.

Not when Victoria was mixing in the agony of the nails with the unmitigated pleasure of the direct stimulation and they just blurred together into one kind of deeply overwhelming but objectively enjoyable sensation.

Max bit her lip, hard, and tried her best to concentrate on the task she’d been assigned.

But her breathing was so severe and Victoria’s attention so great she could hardly form words or think at all.

Spank.

“Eh… eleven, th –“

Spank spank spank.

“tw-ahhh …”

Victoria had rubbed at the spot too sensitive for Max to handle, right now.

Victoria’s attention was simply too incessant and relentless, and Max was simply too pent-up.

Combined with the nails, she couldn’t steady herself enough to continue.

Her back was arched. She was pushing her body back into the attention without even realizing it.

She was gripping the bell so tightly Max might have thought it’d leave an impression on her skin.

Her breathing was as rapid as it had ever been and every exhale came with something shaky and higher-pitched.

Victoria pulled away.

Max had failed.

“Too _useless_ to even do your first lesson. Tsk tsk.”

Max was basically broken, on the bed, unable to recompose herself long enough to even beg Victoria for another chance.

But this was all part of the fantasy, anyway.

Victoria setting her up to fail.

Victoria leaving her high and dry right at the moment Max wanted her attention the most.

Victoria leaving her body alone as Max uselessly tried to get some stimulation.

“I know. There’s something that not even _you_ can fuck up. You can just forget about getting off tonight, though.”

This was different, though. It must have been part of what Victoria wanted to try.

Victoria leaned over and grasped at Max’s shoulders.

“ _Kneel_ , bitch. Your place is on the floor, now. You don’t _deserve_ my bed.”

It wasn’t as though Max had a choice in the matter.

She was malleable underneath Victoria’s hands and was easily manipulated onto the floor, on her knees.

She almost didn’t have the composure to stay upright, but she could deal.

After a few moments, Victoria sat down on the edge of the bed in front of her, with a book in hand.

She turned off the music.

It’d probably be too distracting if she was going to read that thing.

“You’ll be a foot stool while I read. You can do _that_ without fucking up, right? Just sit there and do _nothing_?”

Max mumbled something.

Not intentionally, but she didn’t really have the breath right now.

Victoria gently smacked at her cheek with a bare foot.

“Use your words, slut.”

Max tried to breathe in as deep as she could.

“I-I d-don’t … know, M-ma’am.”

“Let’s find out, then.”

Max wasn’t sure if she had a foot fetish.

Maybe it didn’t really matter.

Max felt like Victoria could basically do whatever she wanted right now and she’d still get off.

Especially if she kept tearing into her and degrading her like this.

Max gently tested the strength of her wrist restraints again as Victoria rested both of her feet on the top of Max’s head.

Max was still totally helpless.

She was drained, exhausted, and hopelessly needy from the denial.

The position was deeply symbolic, if nothing else.

Max on the floor. Undeserving of the comfort of the bed.

Victoria using her like furniture to do something mundane.

Max felt so pent-up and pathetic down here.

  
  


Art by the amazing [Karu](http://karuoke.tumblr.com)

It’s not like she needed any more encouragement to be excited, but at least Victoria was weaving in these new interests in a way that Max could still enjoy.

Victoria made a flat grunting sound after a few seconds.

“Mmm, no, good foot stools don’t move so much. _Stay still._ ”

Max did try her best, but her breathing was still impossible to control.

She had been _so close_ earlier, and it was utterly agonizing to feel her body slowly slip away from that high point.

She rubbed her thighs legs together, just thinking about it.

Victoria must have noticed, because she sighed and lowered her book.

“God, you thirsty slut. You don’t deserve my hands anymore, but… hm.”

Victoria lowered one of her feet, and propped it between Max’s thighs.

Not like Max needed much encouragement to spread them and allow Victoria to do whatever she wanted.

“I’ll give you exactly one minute of time with my foot. Maybe if you’re especially pathetic and needy you’ll be able to get off. You’ll have to clean up whatever mess you make though …”

Max hardly even waited for Victoria to finish before,

“Please Ma’am, t-thank you, Ma’am.”

Victoria just went back to reading her book.

Max realized Victoria wasn’t going to actually do much with her foot.

All she did was prop it adjacent, in contact.

Max had to do all of the work.

She already felt so exhausted – and she had to try and stay as still as she could, lest she fail her other task.

Max realized with another frustrated whine that Victoria had set her up to fail, again.

But she couldn’t help herself in grinding what she could against that foot.

Even if it felt deeply humiliating and dirty.

 _You don’t deserve my hands_.

She just shuddered at the thought.

Max entirely lost herself in the moment of trying to balance keeping her head as still as possible while creating all of the friction she could with Victoria’s offered foot.

One minute was up entirely too soon.

All she had done in that time was manage to get herself even more pent up and excited, but nowhere near close enough for release.

The foot’s contact was entirely too blunt and imprecise to be stimulating enough, and she couldn’t even really get to forcefully grind at it without moving too much and being chastised.

Victoria put her book down.

Her second leg lowered to come into contact with the floor.

She raised the foot that Max had basically been using as a sex toy to Max’s face, and unceremoniously rubbed it against her cheeks and lips.

Max felt so dirty, low, and pathetic.

It could have been any extremity, but Victoria using her feet for this meant she could largely be above the whole thing.

Max was just down here being a horny slut, taking whatever attention she could to get off, while Victoria picking away at some book, disinterested, entirely unphased. Victoria was still completely clothed, even.

The pent-up Max decided that feet were nice, even if she only enjoyed them so far as a means to humiliate and degrade her.

“Clean. Use your tongue. This is your last chance for tonight.”

Max should have resisted, since she knew she probably wasn’t going to enjoy it that all that much, but she was in something of a stupor now.

And this stupor told her that not enjoying it was why she was going to enjoy it.

Since Victoria was just using her for something, like a tool, or a piece of furniture.

With some hesitation, Max extended her tongue and went to cleaning up her own excitement off of Victoria’s foot.

Both parts of Max were right.

She didn’t enjoy it, and she didn’t want to dwell on it.

But she did enjoy it, and she knew she was going to especially enjoy any remarks Victoria made later about her being so pathetic so as to do this.

It was confusing.

Max wondered, very briefly, if Victoria felt this way about any of the interests that Max brought up.

But Max kept on cleaning the foot and fulfilling her task.

She was mostly thinking about her own pleasure slowly slipping away from her _again_ , though.

When she did enough to earn Victoria’s satisfaction, Victoria simply hummed thoughtfully.

“Alright, I suppose. We’ll need to give you more practice. Now, up.”

Victoria wiped off a lot the excess saliva on Max’s face and stood up.

She learned over to help Max up, as well, then went behind her to carefully remove the wrist restraints.

Max was totally exhausted.

Her body was a weird mix of feelings and emotions right now that she couldn't set apart or parse individually.

She wasn’t sure she had enough stamina left in her to do much more.

Just as well, Victoria seemed to be done with the scene.

Her posture had changed, and there was that was warm smile on her face.

She hugged Max in a severe, compressing way, from behind.

The poison and spines that were present in her voice earlier were gone, entirely.

She whispered gently into Max’s ear.

“You were great.”

Max allowed herself to melt back against Victoria.

She also allowed herself to deeply enjoy the return of Victoria’s hand to her groin.

It wasn’t rubbing. It was just in contact, holding. Protecting.

But it still felt nice.

“I hear a hot shower is a really nice place to get off…”

Max’s eyes widened.

It had to have been pretty late now.

They’d probably be all alone.

This was another one of Max’s fantasies.

Sex in the public bathrooms here with Victoria.

It was the danger of the situation that was so exciting.

Not that anyone _would_ catch them, but someone _could_.

 

Max was tired, but.

She was all smiles as Victoria led her out of her room.

Victoria had carefully checked the hallways before they left to ensure they’d be all alone.

Max was tired, but.

She had no objections to being pinned against a wall opposite a shower head and being viciously assaulted by Victoria’s fingers until her body relented.

She didn’t even care if anyone else could hear her sounds, anymore.

Max was tired, but.

She didn’t resist as Victoria wrapped a towel around her, dried her off, and carefully led her back to her room.

Max was tired, but.

Victoria’s bed was awfully warm and relaxing, particularly with Victoria cuddling with her.

It was such a different cool down from the last week.

She didn’t really cry this time, but she was kind of a lump, malleable, useless mess all night.

She didn’t feel as weird about getting off when Victoria abused her, anymore.

Since this wasn’t abuse. Not when Victoria did it.

Max was tired, but.

She didn’t mind as Victoria gently bit at her neck and pulled the skin up with her teeth, sucking at the bite mark afterwards.

Victoria was trying to gear her up for a gentler round two.

Max didn’t have it in her, right now.

But the biting felt nice. Possessive.

Max was tired, but.

Victoria’s bed with a happy, content Victoria nestled against her was the best place to sleep on the entire campus.

She fell asleep with a big, stupid grin on her face.

It wasn’t a fluke.

Victoria was still caring, and put an exceptional amount of effort to recreate her fantasy as best she could.

If there was anyone that Max could trust the world to, it was Victoria, now.

\---

That morning, Max woke up still nestled into Victoria.

They’d ended up spooning.

One of Victoria’s hands was just idly resting between her thighs.

Protecting.

Possessing.

Like she owned it.

But that was okay.

Max fantasized about a possessive Victoria, anyway.

It just made her smile.

She went back to sleep, after that.

She hoped they’d sleep together more often.

This whole package was easily the best part of her week.

 

When Victoria eventually stirred and woke her up again, Max just tiredly turned around to nestle into the space of Victoria’s neck and collar bones.

She kissed all along there.

And she happily absorbed Victoria’s kisses to her forehead.

It was nice to just enjoy this kind of intimate gentleness for a while.

Even if they had other things to do.

Later.

\---

Victoria wasn’t expecting Max back in her room so soon this morning.

“Victoria.”

She sounded kind of annoyed, too.

That was pretty rare for Max.

Especially since she had left with such a huge, dopey grin on her face.

It was enough that Victoria peered back from looking at her computer to see what Max’s deal was.

Max was pointing at some not entirely healthy-looking spots on her neck.

Right.

Victoria had given her some hickies last night.

But she found them pretty goddamn adorable.

Max’s slight pouty look was pretty fucking adorable too.

“So?”

Max frowned.

Victoria sighed and stood up from her seat, facing Max with her arms crossed.

“Who gives a shit. It’s not like ---“

“Victoria.”

Victoria pursed her lips.

Something was really annoying Max about this whole thing.

It was vaguely disquieting.

Did she not like having the marks on her like that?

Was she still ashamed about all of this?

“What?”

Max sighed and lowered her hand to stop the pointing.

“Help me with this, somehow. I can’t go around like this.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow.

She probably had some foundation that would work well to hide it, but.

“Why do you want to hide it?”

Max groaned.

“Because you still don’t want to be seen in public with me and if someone asks about it I’m _not_ going to lie.”

Victoria flinched.

 _That_ is what was bothering her about this.

This was just a proxy to their relationship being entirely private.

It was Victoria’s turn to frown, slightly.

“I didn’t know it bothered you so much.”

She turned around and went to one of her drawers.

She fussed for a few moments to find just the right shade, and few others slightly off, just in case.

Max was biting her lip when she turned back around.

Probably thinking of what to say in response to that.

She needed some time here and there sometimes.

Victoria walked over and grasped at one of Max’s hands.

She put the small bottles in that hand and closed it for her.

“It doesn’t bother me, I just …”

Victoria's frown deepened.

That sounded like a lie.

_It doesn’t bother me, but here’s a reason that it bothers me. But it definitely doesn’t bother me._

“I don’t want to be an embarrassing little secret to you.”                         

Victoria nodded carefully, and squeezed the hand that she had closed for Max before crossing her arms again.

“And you’re not.”

Victoria considered what words to continue with for a few seconds.

“I just wanted more time to figure out what you meant to me before we had to deal with all of that.”

Max’s face scrunched up a little bit more.

Something else was bothering her.

“Is it normal to have a relationship based entirely on sex?”

Victoria blinked and her mouth gaped for a few seconds, stupidly.

That was an awfully piercing question for Max.

Victoria didn’t have an easy answer ready.

“I don’t know. Probably not.”

Max sighed and looked down.

Victoria frowned again.

That was the wrong fucking answer.

She needed to fix this, somehow.

Victoria collected her thoughts for a few seconds to try and alleviate Max’s concerns.

And her own, now that Max had her thinking about it.

“Hey.”

Victoria seldom needed to force Max to look at her anymore.

This wasn’t an exception.

Max slowly looked back up.

“Next Friday… we’ll do something … else, alright? Like, I don’t know, watch a movie. You like movies, don’t you?”

Max smiled and nodded slowly.

“Yeah. I like movies.”

Max hesitated, then just sighed contently.

“That sounds great.”

They shared a smile for a few moments.

Max then paused.

She looked down to the bottles in her hands, then back up to Victoria.

“Um. Can you …?”

Victoria followed the movement of Max’s eyes, and got the hint well enough.

She just groaned, and looked up to the ceiling with her eyes closed.

“There is _no fucking way_ you’ve gone this long through high school without learning how to put on some foundation.”

Max went quiet.

Victoria realized Max was probably being self-conscious again.

She looked back down and opened her eyes.

Max was.

She was looking down at the ground miserably.

“Alright, alright, _fine_. Move it, _hippy_. I did _actually_ have things to do before you interrupted me.”

Despite the content of Victoria’s words, her tone was soft and she had been very careful to not let any annoyance seep into it.

Max looked back up with a huge, warm smile.

“Thanks, Victoria.”

They made their way to one of the public restrooms.

Victoria helped Max put on some foundation to hide the marks on her neck.

Taylor almost interrupted them, but just one look at the scene had her hands raising and her mouth going “I didn’t see anything” before turning on her heel and walking away.

Taylor was a fucking snoop and probably knew what was going on, already.

But that was okay.

Victoria was less worried about how this relationship looked from the outside with every night she spent with Max.

Max didn’t stop blushing, though.

But that was okay, too.

Victoria liked it when Max blushed.

Max hugged her after being convinced that no one could see it anymore.

It was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Victoria plays is ["Daisy" by _Great Dane_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DkoMLcYH44). It's trap music. I always figured Victoria needed something with more of a beat to it.


	5. Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria is an anime nerd.
> 
> Max tries another one of her fantasies.
> 
> Max encounters someone in the worst possible way.
> 
> Max wonders what she really means to Victoria.

Today was Friday, again.

It was becoming their “Date night”, as it were.

Max didn’t quite like the same kind of movies that Victoria did.

But that was okay.

Max could sit through boring anime movies all day long if it kept Victoria happy and ineffectually prattling on about the various characters and plot points.

The question of what kind of movie they would watch tonight had come up, earlier.

Max’s suggestion got a look of deep horror.

Victoria told her very flatly that if she suggested _Spirits Within_ again, it was the end of their relationship.

Max just rolled her eyes and told Victoria to pick the movie, then.

So that’s what they did.

But Max was finding literally everything else _but_ the movie to think about while resting on Victoria’s couch.

Max was slowly giving up the idea of being able to masturbate at all.

She liked it better when Victoria helped her with her pent up needs, anyway.

She had been making a point of spending more time in Victoria’s room.

She wanted to know more about her.

Victoria had always been so careful and restrained about letting people know more.

It made Max really curious.

And she felt like she had an obligation to know more about the person who was getting her off.

It still didn’t really sit right with her to just have Victoria as a sexual-only kind of friend.

Even if they cuddled afterwards.

Even if Max trusted Victoria tremendously.

Max couldn’t name things she knew about her other friends.

She didn’t know Victoria’s favorite color, or her aspirations in life, or what she liked to do in her free time.

Max knew that about Kate and Warren.

And neither of them had ever put their hands inside of Max’s jeans and left her wanting for more.

Victoria noticed Max was spacing, again.

She sighed out of frustration.

“You’re not even paying attention.”

Max wasn’t, but she did her best to look offended at the accusation.

“I’m lost, again. How do you watch these things so often? I’m so confused.”

Victoria just rolled her eyes.

“I’ve already explained things from start to finish to you _once_ and I’m pretty sure you didn’t pay attention there, either. Fool me once, Max. You just need to start actually paying attention.”

Max just hummed thoughtfully.

They’d been sitting adjacent to one another on Victoria’s couch.

Max rested now rested her head on Victoria’s shoulder.

She didn’t seem to mind.

“How can you expect me to pay any attention to anything when I’ve been spending all week thinking of you with no release in sight?”

Victoria scoffed.

Max could imagine her eyes rolling again.

“How many excuses do you have lined-up, Max?”

A lot.

Max had a lot lined up.

But Victoria didn’t need to know that.

Max just made a frustrated whine and wrapped her arms around one of Victoria’s arms.

She guided her hand to between Max’s thighs, on top of her jeans.

“I’m serious.”

Victoria just sighed, and gently ran her fingers up and down the length of Max’s inner-thigh.

“You are so thirsty, I swear to _god_. After the movie, Max.”

Max just continued to smile sweetly.

Victoria didn’t sound all that annoyed.

She had a habit of talking in such a way that there was a disconnect between the content of her words and the tone she associated with them.

It took some getting used to, but Max was able to piece together what Victoria meant when her words were bitchy but her tone wasn’t, or vice versa.

Victoria then paused.

She got a weird sort of expression on her face.

This was enough for Max to sit up more straight so as to see it better.

Victoria slowly looked to her, only with that look effortlessly transitioning into a predatory grin.

Max gulped.

“Actually.”

Victoria’s hand patted at whatever bit of jean it was over,

“I have a better idea. I’m going to _quiz_ you based on this movie. If you’re a good girl and have been paying attention, we can see about getting you off …”

Max’s jaw dropped.

That was so not fair.

“That’s so not fair, Victoria.”

Max was pouting, but Victoria was totally unphased.

“Uh-huh, like it’s fair for you to ignore this movie.”

Victoria looked forward again.

Her voice became softer.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about the best movie to introduce you to this stuff, Max.”

Max opened her mouth to say something, but.

Victoria had a point.

Max felt kind of like an asshole, now.

Victoria was spending genuine effort on this, and Max was just blowing it all off … while simultaneously thinking of how she wanted to be closer and know more about Victoria.

Smooth move.

After a few moments of hesitation, she carefully rested her head back on Victoria’s shoulders.

She kissed at Victoria’s neck.

She knew what to say to make Victoria happier, again.

“I’ll pay attention, Ma’am.”

It _was_ what Victoria wanted to hear.

The little content sigh she heard from Victoria was all of the confirmation she needed.

They both looked to the movie, again.

Max tried her hardest to actually follow what was going on.

Now, she wanted to impress Victoria during this quiz of hers.

Maybe she’d get a bonus for good behavior if she got everything right.

 

Max didn’t get everything right, later that night.

But Victoria could tell that Max was at least trying.

It made Victoria smile.

Max liked it when Victoria smiled.

\---

“This is getting dangerous, Max.”

Cognitively, Max was entirely aware of and appreciative of Victoria’s reluctance.

However, Max had been thinking about this for more than a few days now, and wasn’t about to let it go.

She led Victoria into one of the empty classrooms all the same.

She immediately locked the door as soon as they entered and scanned the room again.

Nobody was in here.

Nobody _would_ be for a whole hour, still.

It was about lunch time.

Max could still hear the roar of the students outside in the hall ways.

And as she got closer to the windows in the room, she could see some students playing football, off in the yard.

“Are you that worried?”

Max looked back.

Victoria came up behind her and placed both of her hands on Max’s shoulders, to firmly rub at them.

“No, I’m not, but …”

Max rolled her eyes.

_No, I’m not worried. But here’s a reason I’m worried._

“But?”

 Victoria sighed.

“ _My_ window is not on the ground level. Someone would have to have been a massive creepazoid to see anything going on. _This_ window …”

She raised a hand to gesture at the window in front of both of them before continuing,

“Anyone could see.”

Max nodded, and smiled sweetly.

“Yeah, that’s kind of the point.”

Max turned her head forward again to the window and looked out of it with Victoria.

This window was huge. It consumed most of the height of the wall, and was part of a series of windows that went all the way down the length of the room.

But it had Venetian blinds. It wasn’t like she would have them wide open, or anything.

“You’re still worried about someone seeing us together.”

Max said, distantly, to the window.

Victoria frowned.

Max could see it in the ambient reflection off of the window.

“A little bit.”

Victoria admitted, since she had learned this was something that she couldn’t convincingly lie to Max about.

“But don’t you try and make this part of that. This is you literally wanting to fuck where everyone can see it.”

It was Max’s turn to frown.

“It seemed like you liked it, too …”

Victoria just groaned and slowly raised her head to look at the ceiling.

But that was okay.

Max liked the little bit of peace and quiet.

When Victoria looked back down, she continued.

“I do. Okay? I’m sure this will go fine.”

Max smiled gently to that.

She turned around, fully, and raised her hands to find Victoria’s so as to interlock their fingers.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Victoria leaned down and kissed her.

Not on the forehead.

Not on the cheeks.

On the lips.

They had done this a few times, now.

They’d been on a few of their “dates” and at some point, it just felt like the natural thing to do.

Max squeezed Victoria’s hands.

Victoria reciprocated.

Max wasn’t a very good kisser.

But that was okay.

Victoria was a good teacher.

Victoria also knew how to bleed kissing into other things, as well.

She bit at the bottom of Max’s lip and pulled on it, gently.

Max closed her eyes and let out an unsteady exhale.

Victoria broke away, but only so far as to start placing little kiss-nibbles all the way down Max’s face to her neck.

While Max still had the presence of mind to, she broke away one of her hands to reach behind her and close the blinds a bit more.

She also raised her chin up to give Victoria all of the space she wanted along her neck.

Max broke away her second hand so that she could place both of them on Victoria’s sides.

Victoria made an annoyed sound when Max snuck her hands underneath the fabric to rub at the skin more directly, but that was okay, too.

Max knew it just meant that she was fixing whatever distress she put on Victoria’s appearance, later.

And she liked doing what she could to rile up Victoria along with her.

Victoria bit down with a certain amount of force on Max’s neck and her mind stopped processing everything for a few seconds.

The moan she got for her efforts was well-deserved and left Max even more breathless than before.

But Victoria stopped, suddenly, to look up at Max.

Max could tell from where Victoria’s exhales ended up colliding against her skin.

Victoria’s own hands had found Max’s sides and were reciprocating the lovely attention Max was giving to her.

They decided to dig inwards, a little dangerously.

Max decided to do the same, since she had learned this was something else Not Normal that they shared.

Victoria shivered for a few pleasant seconds with her eyes closed.

Then,

“Do you want it?”

Max looked down at Victoria and kissed her.

It only lasted a few seconds, but Victoria still had managed to bite her lip again.

Victoria was bite-y.

Max liked a bite-y Victoria.

“Yes.”

The nails dug in a little further, and started to trace around.

“Yes _what_?”

Max tried to lean in on the feeling of the nails as much as she could, so her words could come out more of a breathless moan than anything.

“ _Yes, Ma’am._ ”

Victoria moved her hands to Max’s back and raked her nails straight down.

She had learned when to apply more pressure in a tactical sort of manner, to best warm up Max to the attention and get the sounds she enjoyed out of her.

Like the very particular, very high-pitched, very shaky moan that escaped Max.

It was the kind of moan that had her entire body scrunching up and tensing.

The kind where her eyes went straight closed and welded shut.

The kind where her back arched and her body unconsciously attempted to push itself more towards the attention regardless of where it came.

The kind where she had to simply stop doing whatever it was she was doing since her body could only do so many things at once, and this attention was good at completely overwhelming her ability to multi-task.

It was one of Victoria’s favorite moves, and she cherished the reaction very dearly.

When the nails had finished, she slowly straightened her back.

Just as well, Max’s head had ended up pointing skywards.

Max’s hands had never resumed their gentle attentions. They were just holding on for dear life, now.

Victoria slotted her head alongside Max’s, to whisper into her ear.

“Mmm, I don’t know… I think I need some more … convincing.”

Max’s breathing was broken by now and her mind was racing, but this was a thing, now.

Victoria had been more incessant lately in being _convinced_ to continue.

Victoria called it begging. Max called it hot.

Max had more practice now speaking coherently when she couldn’t even really see straight or breathe right.

“Ohhh… _Hhh_. P-please, _Ma’am_. I n-need it … right n-now. I want y-you so _baaaaaah-dly_.” 

Practice doesn’t always make perfect, though.

Especially not when Victoria was biting methodically along her ear and showing no restraint in exhaling harshly against all of the fresh marks she made.

Max liked it when she did that, too.

But Max had learned how to breathe out some words more like a moan than a coherent sound, and she knew Victoria liked that, too.

“Then let’s get you up against the window so that everyone can see just how badly…”

Max really liked Victoria’s low, seductive tone, she decided.

Max shivered.

She didn’t resist as Victoria manipulated their position.

Just like they had discussed.

Max was leaning over, slightly, now.

The blinds were cheap and plastic-y and easy bent so that she could fit more of her face into direct contact with the glass.

Victoria brought Max’s wrists behind her own back.

Then she pressed her front against Max’s back, tightly, to keep them in place.

It wasn’t the most secure of bonds, but that wasn’t the point.

Max just liked the idea of being more helpless to Victoria’s attentions.

Max started to lose herself as she felt Victoria’s hands slowly snake around her front and begin roaming.

She alternated between her nails and more direct touch of fingers as she traced patterns along Max’s belly and sides.

Max thought about Victoria touching somewhere else, shamelessly.

Though her face wore an awful lot of shame with the bright, all-consuming blush.

Max’s eyes were mostly closed, but she kept one open just enough to see the people going by, off in the distance.

This wasn’t _tremendously_ risky. This building wasn’t close to a path, or anything like that, so it’s not like people would be walking right on by.

But it was the thought that counted, here.

Not that anyone _would_ , but that someone _could._

And now, if someone did come by, they would, at the least, see Max’s face in open ecstasy with such a severe blush that it’d leave little doubt as to what was going on.

That thought was exciting enough, alone.

But combined with Victoria’s presence, combined with her hands being sealed away, combined with Victoria’s attention, she started to feel overwhelmed, again.

She couldn’t steady her breathing.

She didn’t even bother trying by the time one of Victoria’s hands came up to her breasts and nipples, and the other down to her groin.

She just gave Victoria the pathetically excited sounds of enjoyment that she knew both of them wanted to hear.

She closed her eyes.

The football game was ending, so there was nothing left to even really see anymore.

It’s not like she’d be seeing straight for much longer, anyway.

Max was just able to just melt against the window and Victoria’s arms, soaking in all of the attention for all that it was worth.

Victoria’s nails had never really been involved with Max’s more sensitive regions.

But she had started to experiment with Max’s nipples.

It was slight, but it being slight didn’t matter so much.

Since every millimeter of flesh her nails raked over became more sensitive and raw.

Which made the particulars of pinching and twisting and rubbing that much more enjoyable.

Max’s mouth gaped.

It was easier to just keep it open instead of having to ---

Someone banged loudly against the window.

They had been caught.

“Yeah! Get some!”

Max was mortified, but her mind was slow to really fully appreciate the scope of what was happening, and her body was even more reluctant in responding.

And when it did, she basically just lurched backwards.

Victoria was right there, though, and still larger and more physically capable than Max was.

All she really did is end up more pressed against her with Max’s favorite hands in less positive contact.

She ducked her head downwards.

Victoria, for her part, just sighed severely.

She didn’t even really flinch when Max pushed back and wasn’t entirely startled by the sudden presence of the person.

She was actually expecting it, if she was being honest.

Carefully but expediently she removed her hand from one of Max’s breasts and moved it over to the control for the blinds. She closed them.

She then released Max, who collapsed forward against the wall and blinds.

Smooth.

Victoria probably should have expected that would happen.

Max just grunted and tried to correct herself.

She was still breathing severely and brokenly and couldn’t stand up fully without one of her hands resting against a nearby surface for additional support.

“Well. That was fun.”

Victoria deadpanned.

Max groaned weakly.

“T-this … isn’t … funny, Victoria.”

When Max looked up to Victoria, she was licking one of her hands clean.

Like a cat, preening.

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“What did you say earlier? ‘That’s kind of the point’?”

Max groaned again, looking to the ceiling and closing her eyes.

Victoria’s wry echo wasn’t helping anything.

Max hesitated for a few seconds.

Something was bothering her about the interruption.

Not just the fact that it occurred, though that was certainly more ‘fun’ than she had been planning on.

She didn’t get a very good look at the person she saw, what with getting off and all, but the voice sounded vaguely familiar.

“Was it … anyone I would … know?”

She still tried to steady her voice as much as she could, but it was asking a lot of her body, right now.

Not that Victoria minded too much when Max was breathless and needy.

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“Probably not. I think her name was Moey? No … Boey. Chloe. Doey. She’s some weed burnout. She buys drugs from Nathan and occasionally flails around at Vortex Club parties. With Rachel.”

Victoria frowned, a little bit.

“I think she’s expelled or something, though. She must be on campus to load up on weed. There’s no party tonight.”

Max was jealous of Victoria’s ability to remain composed and unfeeling after something so righteously embarrassing.

Even if she could see some blush, she knew it was positively nothing to what her own face was doing, right now.

When Max’s over-stressed brain finally caught up to what Victoria had said, though, her heart dropped.

There was _no fucking way_ that was the same Chloe.

Chloe wasn’t a weed burnout.

Chloe wouldn’t …

Maybe Victoria just had her names mixed up. She didn’t sound very confident.

Even though Max was dreading the answer, she still had to know.

She breathed in deep, stood up straight, and turned around to face Victoria properly.

“Please tell me that … wasn’t Chloe Price.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow.

“No, that name sounds right.”

Max groaned and whimpered pathetically.

She looked up to the ceiling again.

Victoria just sighed and stepped close to Max again, wrapping her arms around.

Max was more than eager to absorb Victoria’s warmth and attention.

She nestled into her neck.

“Relax. It’ll be fine. There’s no way she’ll have the balls to say anything. She knows I’ll crush her.”

Max whimpered again.

“What?”

Victoria’s voice still sounded so flat.

Max mumbled something into Victoria’s neck.

While Victoria quite enjoyed the sensation of Max breathing and talking into her neck, this was not helpful for their conversation.

“Words, please.”

Max peeled her face away enough to just rest it on Victoria’s shoulders.

She sighed, again.

“She’s um. An old friend.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“Well. That’s fun.”

Victoria didn’t seem to have much in the way of conversation to add.

Max probably wasn’t helping by telling her so little, but her mind was still racing with the implications of what it all meant.

After a few moments, Max just melted, defeated, in Victoria’s arms.

Eventually,

“Just … get me off, please. Then I need to deal with … all of this.”

Victoria considered making Max beg for it again, but that mood had been kind of shattered.

Instead, she just nodded, lowered her hand back down into Max’s jeans, and resumed her attentions.

Only this time, she wasn’t looking to slowly excite Max.

This was utilitarian.

But it was okay.

In this position, Max could kiss her.

And she did.

And in between such kisses, she could watch as Max’s face scrunched up from the intense stimulation.

It was adequate compensation for not being able to drink in Max’s body carefully building up to something dramatic.

Max was more sensitive than she was, and this was significant over-stimulation.

She’d even get to the point where she wouldn’t be able to breathe at all.

But it was cute and endearing, in a weird way Victoria hadn’t quite figured out.

And, more importantly, it was more efficient, and over with far more quickly.

 

Afterwards, they kissed again, and separated.

Max needed a few minutes to try and calm down her blush and think about what she was going to do.

Victoria just shrugged.

They’d be in communication all throughout the day, and didn’t normally have lunch together, anyway.

Victoria left.

Max slumped into one of the empty chairs.

Fuck.

Out of all of the possible ways she could have possibly seen her old childhood friend again, this had to have been the worst.

Not to mention, the most embarrassing, and humiliating one.

If Chloe was anything like she was in her childhood, she’d _never_ hear the end of this.

Max could already imagine the conversation.

_Yo dude, you remember that time I caught you and Vic totally banging?_

_That was years ago, Chloe._

_Yeah, but, have you ever seen your face? Here, let me imitate it, for you._

She could imagine the very particular ways Chloe would exaggerate her own face to get a rise out of Max.

It made her smile softly, despite it all.

She rested her head against crossed arms on the desk and just tried to calm down.

Max didn’t even get a good look at Chloe’s face.

But that didn’t matter.

She knew what Chloe looked like, anyway.

She hadn’t changed much, in all of her years of knowing her.

And the Chloe that she knew could never stay all that mad at her.

Maybe Chloe didn’t even recognize her, somehow, with her face all contorted and severely blushed.

Maybe Max was totally overthinking everything because of the years of guilt she’d been pointedly trying to ignore.

She sighed.

This was going to work out, somehow.

Max wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind to come up with a battle plan, anyway.

Even if she wasn’t still a little giddy and high from post-orgasm, the guilt was making everything more confusing and difficult to think about.

She needed a shower.

She needed lunch.

Then she needed to find Chloe.

\---

Later that afternoon, Max had taken a shower and changed clothes.

Then she tried to find Chloe.

But she couldn’t find her anywhere.

Max didn’t _particularly_ want her first phone call or text to Chloe in _years_ to be about all of _this_.

But she couldn’t find her anywhere.

Was she avoiding Max?

Victoria _did_ say she was really only around for getting drugs and parties.

The thought still didn’t sit right with Max.

That sounded nothing like the Chloe she knew.

Max wasn’t going to be able to just find her floating around campus, she slowly realized.

 

After an entirely unsuccessful afternoon, Max just collapsed on Victoria’s bed.

Max decided she would redouble her efforts, tomorrow. Maybe she’d attend one of those parties, later on.

But for now, she just wanted to relax and unwind with Victoria.

Forget about all of the weirdness of her afternoon.

Victoria was doing something with her computer.

Max turned over onto her side to look at Victoria.

Her mind picked an unfortunate time to dump another batch of anxieties on her, though.

She frowned.

She wasn’t going to be doing much unwinding, now.

It was about the relationship between them.

It had been bothering Max for a while now.

Almost as long as they’d been having sex.

But it was especially awful after they had started kissing.

They had been on dates, now.

A few of them.

They were all more-or-less what Max wanted out of a relationship with Victoria.

None of them were perfect.

But they were all nice.

And Max wasn’t going to forget them any time soon.

They had held hands.

They had cuddled.

They had kissed.

They had sex.

Max’s brain came up with no legitimate reasons for why she didn’t qualify as girlfriend-material, anymore.

And in its place, it offered thorny, disquieting thoughts.

Did Victoria care more about her stupid appearance than meaning something to someone? To Max?

Did she not really care about Max at all?

Was it just a very elaborate game of some kind?

Was she only interested in this for the sex, and just entertained the other things to keep Max happy and oblivious?

Was Victoria stringing her along?

Max had to know.

She swallowed and tried to steel her voice.

“I’m tired of hiding this.”

She tried to put as much force behind her words as she could.

Victoria just hummed flatly.

“Really. I couldn’t tell.”

Victoria deadpanned her response.

She didn’t even look up from her computer.

Max’s frown deepened.

That response was not helping her anxieties one bit.

She turned her head into one of Victoria’s pillows and made a deeply-frustrated sound.

She then just laid there and brewed miserably for a while.

Victoria probably didn’t care.

This was her way of telling her that.

Being emotionally-distant when Max was emotionally-needy.

She didn’t even notice when Victoria had gotten up.

“Hey.”

She did notice her gentle words, though.

But Max didn’t move.

“Max.”

Max still didn’t move.

“Come on.”

Nope.

Not even when Victoria’s tone was sounding increasingly worried.

She could hear Victoria sigh.

Eventually, she could feel Victoria sitting down on the bed aside her.

Then, she was aware of Victoria grasping at her shoulders and manhandling her around, so that her head was resting pleasantly in Victoria’s lap.

She didn’t do this very often. This particular position.

Only when Max got upset, like this.

Victoria’s fingers through her hair was a deeply relaxing and balancing experience.

Victoria must have known this, too, since it was deployed so tactically.

Max closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and exhaled slowly. Forcefully

“Okay.”

Max willed her body into sitting up.

Victoria had to know.

Even if it could potentially ruin their relationship due to mismatched expectations.

“Victoria. I want to be your girlfriend and I don’t know if I can take it much longer otherwise. Just … please, a yes or no?”

Victoria was quiet for a few moments.

She was looking off to one of her walls.

Max bit her lip.

Victoria was thinking of a way to let her down gently and she ---

Victoria stood up, suddenly, and marched over to her closet.

Max raised an eyebrow.

That was not really the response she was expecting.

And she had been thinking about this scenario an awful lot, and had imagined all sorts of responses.

It was surprising enough to at least hit the pause button on her anxieties.

Victoria came back from her closet with a little black box.

She shoved it in Max’s lap, immediately sat down next to her, and sighed.

“Open it.”

Max looked down to the box, and back to Victoria again.

“Are you just going to ---“

“Open it.”

Victoria interrupted her, and then looked at her expectantly. Her eyes were darting back and forward between Max’s face and the box.

Max bit her lip.

Victoria had her arms crossed. She looked pouty. Or maybe nervous. Max couldn’t really tell.

Carefully, Max opened up the box. It was hinged on one side, so it opened easily and cleanly enough.

The box was lined with a soft material.

This was a gift box, Max realized entirely too belatedly.

There was some kind of necklace inside.

A choker, Max recognized.

She was even more confused, now.

Why was Victoria giving her a necklace now, and acting so weird about it?

“What ---“

“It’s a sign of ownership.”

Victoria said, entirely too quickly. Her voice wasn’t even enough. She was definitely nervous, now.

Max looked between her and the choker a few times.

A sign of ownership?

Carefully, she removed it from the box and examined it, a bit more.

It was comprised mostly of a golden snake chain.

There was a black material – velvet, maybe – that ran along the center of it.

It felt and looked nice, if a bit loud for the absolutely zero jewelry that Max usually wore.

Part of Max was tremendously excited, since it had gone a million miles ahead with what this probably meant.

But the rest of her was drowning in the anxieties she had been stewing in for the past however many minutes.

She didn’t want to get ahead of herself, quite yet.

She could fish out a more complete response from Victoria to know, for sure.

“I don’t understand.”

Max’s voice was soft. She didn’t want to sound unappreciative.

Victoria sighed and closed her eyes.

Her head looked away again.

She bit her lip.

She hesitated for probably a good minute.

Max tried to keep her composure.

That wasn’t what you do when you’re about to tell someone you don’t feel the same way.

Eventually, Victoria uncrossed her arms, looked back to Max, and opened her eyes, again.

Her face was so soft and gentle, now.

“Max. I want you to be mine. My-girlfriend-or-whatever. The necklace you’d wear in public as a gentle reminder of that, and a dog whistle for people who know better.”

Max looked back down to the choker, and ran her fingers along it.

She definitely noticed that Victoria’s voice got even quicker and more uneven when she tripped over the girlfriend sentence.

Max smiled.

Victoria had been thinking about this.

She wasn’t just using Max for the sex or whatever.

Or stringing her along, emotionally.

She had this whole thing ready to go.

She could just never find the will to do it, apparently.

What’s more, she seemed every bit as anxious about it as Max was.

“I just …”

Max was kicked out of her thoughts by a Victoria without her words.

Max blinked.

Victoria was never without her words.

It was unusual enough to get Max out of her necklace stupor and looking at Victoria.

Victoria couldn’t meet her gaze. Now she was looking at the floor.

Max smiled a bit wider.

She took the opportunity to put on the choker and inch closer until she pressed her side against Victoria’s.

She found one of Victoria’s hands and tightly interlocked their fingers.

She squeezed.

“Hey.”

Her voice was still quiet, but that was okay, since they were so close.

Victoria looked back to Max.

Max could feel her immediately tense up as she saw Max

With the choker on.

She gasped, audibly.

“Please kiss me, Ma’am.”

Max’s words broke Victoria even further.

Max should have taken a picture.

Eventually, Victoria recovered, and smiled as wide as Max was.

“I think I can do that. For my _girlfriend._ ”

Her voice was even again, filled with her usual confidence.

Max opened her mouth to say something, but Victoria collided into her and knocked her onto the bed.

This was something else Victoria liked to do, too.

But it was okay.

Max liked it when Victoria pinned her arms above her like this.

She liked it when she could feel Victoria’s warmth right above her.

She liked it when all she could smell was lavender.

And all she could see was Victoria’s beaming face.

Victoria kissed her.

It was a bit gentle for the kisses she initiated.

It was slow, careful, and with less teeth that bit at Max’s lips.

But that was okay, too.

Max enjoyed closing her eyes.

She enjoyed the feeling of a happy Victoria making out with her.

She enjoyed the feeling of the new choker around her neck.

And she particularly enjoyed Victoria’s nails digging into her wrists slightly.

 

With a near growled,

“ _Mine_.”

Coming from Victoria, all Max could do was shiver and nod gently.

“Yours.”

Max wasn’t going to stop smiling for weeks at this rate.


	6. Miss Girlfriend Mistress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max has a girlfriend.
> 
> People need to know.
> 
> Victoria isn't _just_ a girlfriend, though.
> 
> Max learns why.

Max wasn’t sure if she expected being Victoria’s girlfriend would change things all that much.

But she was going to make the most of it, either way.

The next morning, Max was very clear.

She’s not hiding any of this, anymore.

Victoria understood.

They had a simple agreement.

Victoria didn’t mind if Max’s social circle was aware.

But.

Victoria was going to get Max some clothes.

And she was going to frame Max’s introduction to Victoria’s social circle in a _particular_ way.

One of their parties.

It made Max a little nervous.

But the nervous part of her didn’t last very long after Victoria gently kissed her and told her not to worry about it.

It was precautionary.

She wanted Max to look her best and make the right impressions on people.

Max figured if she was going to be taking fashion advice from anyone on campus, the best person would probably be Victoria.

So she was okay with it.

And the fact that Victoria had this plan ready to go, again, told Max that she had been thinking about it.

These little reminders about how balanced their relationship was kept Max’s relationship anxieties at bay, for the most part.

 

When she left Victoria’s room that morning, she wore her new choker quite proudly.

She just felt giddy about the whole thing.

Victoria cared for her.

She wasn’t just being strung along emotionally.

She could still hear the affection and _want_ in Victoria’s voice whenever she said “mine”.

Just thinking about it made her smile.

So in her happy thoughts was she that she almost bumped into Kate in the hall.

But she had at least the presence of mind to avoid that, and just stopped short.

“Oh! Kate. Hi.”

“Hi, Max.”

Kate smiled nervously, but looked away.

There was blush there.

What …?

“Um, what’s up?”

Max tried not ensure her voice didn’t have that much worry in it.

Kate sighed.

She looked down to the floor, then back up to Max.

“You just came out of Victoria’s room after I heard some … things, last night.”

Max smiled sweetly and tried to not blush all that much.

She also tried very hard to not be amused at the idea of a mortified Kate hearing the shenanigans going on between Victoria and Max.

Victoria was ruining her.

“Yeah. We’re girlfriends now.”

Kate blinked only about a thousand times at the news.

“I see.”

Max frowned, slightly.

Kate’s tone was flat.

She should have been much happier at the news that someone meant so much to Max.

Something was wrong.

“Does it bother you?”

Kate pursed her lips and hesitated on a response.

“Victoria is not a nice person, Max.”

Max sighed, and crossed her arms.

“Can’t you be happy for me? This is like my first of everything.”

Kate nodded.

“And I am overjoyed for you about that.”

Her deadpan wasn’t very convincing, though.

“But, I’m just worried, Max. You don’t know how many people I’ve seen go into her room and come out, like you. I’m sure they all felt as happy as you did, right now.”

Fucking _ow._

Max frowned.

“This is different. I’m not just a one-night stand, Kate.”

Kate hummed thoughtfully. She then sighed.

“I’m just worried for you, Max. Victoria hurts people.”

Max sighed herself, more deeply, and closed her eyes.

Her arms slowly fell down to her sides.

Maybe she shouldn’t have expected this to be so easy.

None of her friends saw what Max did.

Mindful of the choker around her neck, she straightened up her back.

“Victoria won’t hurt me like that.”

Max projected it as confidently as she could.

Kate paused for a few moments.

But then she smiled gently.

“I suppose she must be doing something right if you’re so sure of it.”

She then looked away, down the hall, before looking back to Max.

“Okay, Max. I believe you. I’ve really got to get to class, though. You should, too.”

“Yeah.”

Max waved to Kate as she walked off, and slumped against a nearby wall.

How confident was she, really, that Victoria wasn’t going to hurt her somehow?

Max closed her eyes.

She thought back to all of the trust they founded this relationship on.

Victoria didn’t even touch her like that until she was absolutely confident Max trusted her.

She thought back to all of the time she’s seen Victoria.

Never with anyone else, in public.

She thought back to all of the nervousness Victoria had when asking Max to be her girlfriend.

Victoria was as scared that this was going to go wrong, somehow, as Max was.

How confident was she that Victoria wouldn’t hurt her like that?

Max knew the answer, now.

She was very confident.

She stood up straight, went into her room to get her bag, and made her way to class.

Max understood Kate’s reaction.

It was just surprising news to Kate.

It’s not like anyone saw this coming.

 

“Yeah-no, I totally get it.”

Max blinked.

She was talking to Warren, now, who was quite breezy about the news.

They were in chemistry, now.

“You get it?”

He grinned wide and toothily. He raised his arms up in his usual dramatic movements.

“Duh. Victoria’s always been a little weird in bullying you. Everyone kinda already knew.”

His arms fell back to his sides and clapped pleasantly against the fabric of his jeans.

“I totally understand though. She’s hot.”

Max tried to repress a stupid grin from that.

“There’s more to it, than that.”

Warren nodded happily.

“Yeah, but, being hot helps with everything, too. But hey, if she makes you happy, then it makes me happy.”

His tone was light and playful.

Max couldn’t help but smile, now.

 

Max didn’t have anyone else she felt immediately compelled to tell the news to.

She had more associates who had various levels of comfort in talking to Max, but.

No one else who needed to know much about her love life.

Max couldn’t wait for her classes to be over.

The rest of her day was actually over with fairly quickly.

She spent most of it just sighing dreamily and thinking.

And pointedly ignoring Warren’s teasing, whenever she had class with him.

When she was finally done, she contently crashed on Victoria’s bed, and just grinned like an idiot.

Cognitively, she knew that not much had practically changed between them, personally, but it just felt different, somehow.

_Girlfriend._

Max had a _girlfriend_.

She repeated it over and over in her mind until the word became satiated and meaningless.

_Girlfriend._

She laid on Victoria’s bed and just stared at her for a little while, while Victoria was doing whatever inconsequential stuff she happened to be doing.

Usually homework.

It didn’t usually bother her very much.

Practically, Max had done the same thing today that she had done yesterday. Lay on Victoria’s bed and be obnoxiously doe-eyed.

But it felt different, now.

Max’s grin was so infectious, and her stare so obvious, Victoria noticed.

“ _Um_?”

Max giggled.

“Giiiiirlfriend.”

Her tone came out far more playful than she was expecting it to – not a tone she used very often with Victoria.

Victoria, for her part, just rolled her eyes and groaned softly.

“You’ve been hung up on that all day, haven’t you?”

Max nodded and continued to grin like the idiot she was.

She closed her eyes with another dreamy sigh.

“It’s just _so_ – wah!”

She had started, but Victoria moved quickly and was upon her in no time.

Victoria must have ruthlessly capitalized the opportunity when she saw Max’s eyes close.

She maneuvered them into one of their favorite positions, with Max on her back, and Victoria _right_ above her, wrists captured and all.

Victoria gently bit at the tip of Max’s nose.

Max just giggled gently again.

Victoria spoke next, and her tone was dangerously low.

“You know, with that choker on, I’m not _just_ your _girlfriend_.”

Max blinked her eyes open and considered what Victoria might have meant.

“Um, not _just_ …?”

But nothing came to mind, and even if she _did_ know what Victoria was thinking about, Max wasn’t very good at turning up things when her _girlfriend_ was right above her like this.

Victoria sighed softly.

“Mmm-hmm. This also makes me your _Mistress._ ”

Max blinked a few dozen times and felt herself blushing.

“O-oh. What…”

She had to swallow to compose herself,

“What does that mean?”

Victoria carefully trailed one of her hands down from Max’s wrists.

But Max was still pretty much clothed at this point, so all it did was race along her sides until it came to her outer thighs.

Then it made a very unsubtle movement inwards, and groped vigorously for all of a few seconds.

“That _you_ and this pussy of yours are officially _mine_.”

Now the hand was just teasing in its attention, but incessantly so.

Max tightly closed her eyes and shifted her body around to push against the attention.

She hoped Victoria appreciated her gentle moan.

“Y-yeah?”

“Yeah. No touchy, no feel-y, no grope-y, no nothing. It’s mine, and I _forbid_ it. It’s only for _me_ to touch.”

Max licked her lips and swallowed again.

“Mnh, not even if I w-want to?”

Victoria bit gently at the lower part of Max’s lip and pulled it up and away for a few seconds.

“ _Especially_ not if you want to.”

Again, practically, not much had changed, here.

Victoria explicitly disallowed Max’s masturbation from time to time, but Max didn’t even masturbate even when Victoria didn’t explicitly disallow it.

It was just part of their dynamic, and Max enjoyed relying on Victoria in that way.

It just _felt_ different to know that Victoria had made it _official_.

 _Officially_ , Max was done masturbating.

 _Officially,_ her _Mistress_ had assumed control, and wasn’t likely to release it anytime soon.

Max shivered at the thought and her mouth gaped slightly.

Her pleasured sounds escaped her more easily in this manner, and it exaggerated her breathing.

Both of which worked well when Victoria was so close, and could hear every little detail.

“Mmmmhh… Not even if I beg?”

Victoria bit down again, a little bit lower, this time. Somewhere about her chin and neck.

“ _Especially_ not if you beg.”

Max’s chin lifted thoughtlessly to give Victoria more space.

“Ooooh. Not even if you command it?”

Victoria made her way over to Max’s ear and lowered her voice further.

Max really fucking liked Victoria’s low voice.

“I’m never. Going to. Allow you. To masturbate. Ever. Again.”

Victoria paused in her sentence periodically and accented each break with a tiny nibble along Max’s ear.

“Oooohh… noooooo.”

Max’s voice had steadily become more distant and breathless as Victoria’s attentions continued.

It didn’t help that Victoria’s hand hadn’t stopped groping since, and Max had been shamelessly rubbing into it herself as much as she could.

“N-never ever… ever?”

Max could tell Victoria hesitated for a few seconds.

“Does that … bother you?”

Max opened one of her eyes halfway and almost giggled.

Even after turning Max into a moaning mess underneath her fingers, even after becoming Max’s Mistress and girlfriend, even after being knuckle-deep in Max all those times, Max _still_ saw little glimpses of this insecure Victoria.

One who was nervously biting at her own lip, at the thought that _maybe_ , just _maybe_ , she had gone too far.

For some reason, the thought that Victoria was as nervous about their relationship as Max was deeply endeared Victoria to Max.

Max closed her eyes again and giggled breathlessly.

“N-no, I was doing a t-thing, y’know, so you ---“

“-- Oh! Oh-oh-oh. _Duh_.”

Victoria’s voice came out quick for a few seconds before she cleared her throat.

It was back to its low, sultry, seductive tones in no time.

“Never ever ever _ever_.”

Max wondered if the mood _should_ have been shattered by that little character break, but.

Victoria’s hand hadn’t gone anywhere and Victoria bit down on a spot below Max’s ear, along her neck, for good measure.

The thought that Victoria was so worried about Max’s enjoyment of the whole affair was pretty arousing in of itself, anyway.

Max uttered another breathless, high-pitched moan.

Victoria then carefully released her, and stood up.

She did this, sometimes.

“Stay.”

Usually, though, she just allowed Max to quietly realize everything was over with and get frustrated by her unfair teasing.

But this was different.

“Yes, Mistress.”

Max’s mind started to wonder about what Victoria could have been planning.

They did have a party to go to in an hour or so.

Victoria couldn’t have been planning on riding up right to then, could she?

Max just uselessly rubbed her legs together and gyrated on the bed, since her body was as of yet unwilling to accept the absence of Victoria’s hand.

“Strip.”

Max didn’t really need a lot of encouragement to do that, anyway.

“Yes, Mistress.”

Her body felt a little sluggish and slow to respond right now, but she still peeled off her clothing and kicked off her jeans in short order.

“Good girl.”

Max carefully removed her underwear as well, since Victoria rarely liked it on, and Max didn’t particularly want it on right now, anyway.

While they had a thing sometimes of making Max go without her underwear for a day, Victoria was mindful that Max was fucking thirsty without the ability to masturbate and it more-or-less tanked her day to useless fantasizing.

So they usually did it on weekends.

By the time Max had finished, Victoria had returned to the bed.

She made sure to gently run her fingers along Max’s belly while she spoke.

“We’ve got a little bit of time before we’re to be at the party. I want you to be… _excitable_.”

Max wondered why Victoria even bothered with the euphemism at this point.

But she was wondering instead of acknowledging, and received a gentle spank for insolence.

Victoria had placed it in between her thighs, but hadn’t ran it up too far.

This was because Max was sensitive; she needed more build-up before she could be masochistic about attention to her groin.

Regardless, she still squeaked and squirmed around for a few seconds.

“Yes, Mistress. Sorry, Mistress.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“Good girl.”

Victoria was quiet for a few moments.

Max felt some fabric along her face, covering her eyes.

She hadn’t opened them, but now there was no point in doing so, anyway.

Victoria gently lifted Max’s head up for a few moments to secure the material along the perimeter of her head.

Victoria then shifted downwards to somewhere lower on the bed.

Quiet.

Her palm came down on Max’s belly.

Max could feel her nails making concentric circles there.

Max shivered.

She then methodically moved her fingers down to trace the length of Max’s left leg.

When they reached Max’s ankle, she felt some leather material tightly wrap around it.

Quiet.

Then the material started to dig into her skin and force her leg to be wide and exposing.

Not that they weren’t already, but this was different.

When restrained, she had no choice but to trust Victoria and be helpless to her attentions.

Victoria repeated the gesture of placing her hand on Max’s belly and running her hand down the length of one of Max’s extremities before restraining it with similar leather.

Eventually, Max was stuck on Victoria’s bed, in a most helpless of positions, with her arms and legs spread wide.

Quiet.

Max gently tested the strength of the restraints in the down time.

All this resulted in was the leather biting down more severely into her skin.

She wasn’t moving an inch.

She heard a DSLR camera’s shutter opening and closing and suddenly felt very self-conscious.

If her blush hadn’t already, it had free reign to cover as much of her face as she wanted, now.

But it wasn’t like she could do much to object to this.

She just pathetically squirmed in the most minute, ineffectual of ways.

“Something to remember you by.”

Victoria said in an almost sing-song manner.

Max breathed in harshly.

Her girlfriend having a few lewd photos of her probably wasn’t something she should find objectionable, anyway.

She sure was taking more than a few of them, though.

Quiet.

Victoria’s fingers returned to Max’s groin.

Only this time, there was nothing to separate them from direct, unmitigated contact.

Max immediately tried to shift her body into getting more of the attention, and provided Victoria with an eager moan to encourage her to continue.

But it was not meant to be.

Victoria’s hands were only there for a short while.

She moved her hand away and rubbed along Max’s inner thighs.

Max felt something cold and plastic-y replace the contact Victoria’s fingers had been delivering a few moments ago.

This sensation was different.

And it was much _more_ different when the contact came to life and began to vibrate gently.

 _Oh_.

This had to have been a vibrator of some kind, Max figured.

She then stopped figuring much at all when Victoria’s nails dug in sharply into her thighs and raked downwards.

Victoria had been making a point of dangerously mixing in some pain whenever she started to get Max off.

Combined with Max’s natural sensitivity, the experience proved to consistently be overwhelming, but deeply enjoyable.

There was no care in the world, no real through-line to her thought process, as the vibrations continued, and Victoria’s nails found more skin to torment.

But this wouldn’t be Victoria if the attention continued so directly for so long.

And, after what had to have been an objectively unfairly short period, both attentions died off.

Max made a frustrated whine and did her best to squirm around, but the leather more-or-less kept her exactly where she was.

“We’re going to play a little game. I’m going to finish picking out your outfit and finish off my homework. In the meantime, you’re going to set here and moan like the little pathetic slut you are. Got it?”

Victoria slapped at some part of Max’s thigh.

Max moaned eagerly and nodded.

“Y-yes, Mistress.”

“Good girl.”

She felt Victoria’s weight get off the bed.

Max wasn’t sure if she was expecting to have to fabricate her sounds or ---

The vibrator turned on again.

_Oh._

Then,

_Oh no._

The realization hit Max that she was going to be stuck with absolutely nowhere to go and nothing to do but just lay here and be agonizingly persistently stimulated by whatever had been placed between her legs.

While Victoria was just going to act like it was the most normal thing in the world.

This thread was actually one of the most consistent part of Max’s fantasies.

Victoria was almost always dressed in them, and almost never all that aroused.

She would just be dispassionately exploiting Max’ weaknesses to get her off, pathetically.

Usually in a manner that exposed Max’s dark needs to more than just Victoria.

Max found the idea unbelievably compelling to be a needy, thirsty little girlfriend that Victoria could just use at her whim.

And the idea of her stewing loudly on the bed while Victoria just casually did her homework was not going to make this easy on Max.

Since she hadn’t been given any permission to orgasm.

But for now, at least, Max didn’t worry about that.

The vibrator’s attentions were not aggressive enough to make that a concern, at this moment.

She just relaxed back and allowed her mind to wander with further thoughts, now that she was utterly helpless.

And being all bound added an interesting layer to whatever she’d fantasize.

 

She eventually came back to reality when the vibrating attentions were removed.

Her body produced a frustrated whine before her mind fully appreciated it.

But it was immediately replaced with Victoria’s hand rubbing as vigorously and quickly as it could for a few seconds.

She topped it off with a few sharp spanks, which Max definitely wasn’t prepared for, in her stupor.

Max’s moans were usually on the quieter, higher-pitched side.

The spanks so direct to her groin earned something much louder out of her.

Victoria hesitated.

Only after another few moments of quiet did she hear Victoria’s hi-fi turn on.

Max’s brain wasn’t operating very efficiently now, but it eventually caught on that it had been off the entire time.

Who knows who heard what, particularly that latest sound.

Oops.

“Well. Maybe the entire floor knowing what a needy bitch you are isn’t such a bad thing, _anyway_.”

Max should have been mortified at the idea, but mostly, her body was just complaining that all the stimulating attentions had stopped.

She whined, pathetically, and struggled at her restraints ineffectually.

“P-ple… please … Mistress.”

Max was entirely out of breath by now and found words difficult.

“Mmm? What’s that?”

But she shouldn’t have been surprised that Victoria wanted to make her beg some more, anyway.

“I… need,” Max swallowed, “it.”

She felt the vibrator placed against her body again, but it wasn’t turned on.

“ _Oh_ , this old thing?”

“Yes!”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“ _Oh_ , I don’t know. You’re asking a _lot_ , you know. Maybe you can do something for _me_ , if you want this _so_ badly.”

“A-anything …”

Max could visualize Victoria grinning in her predatory manner, even if she couldn’t see it.

“I’ll turn it on, but you won’t be cumming. Instead, whenever you get close, I want you to beg for it to be turned off. For your orgasm to be denied.”

Max whined in an especially degrading manner and struggled at her restraints some more.

That so wasn’t fair.

But she had hesitated for too long, and the vibrator was removed, entirely.

“Or nothing at all.”

Max’s body lurched as much as it could towards the direction she thought the device was.

“N-no! I’ll… be a … good girl.”

Max felt the contact resume, and the vibrations pick up again.

Only this was entirely different than before.

Now it was mercilessly violent and forceful.

Now it must have been on a higher, if not the highest setting.

Max could only make a surprised cry as Victoria chuckled quietly and left the bed.

“I’ll hold you to that. The punishment for cumming without permission is very severe, you know.”

Max could hear Victoria’s computer chair creak quietly.

She realized that this was going to be harder than she thought.

She could hardly even form a coherent thought with the vibrator on this setting, with all of these restraints, and with how long her mind had been given to wander, earlier.

And having the presence of mind to not just realize when she was about to cum, but intentionally vocalize something in protest, felt like asking far too much of Max’s body and mind right now.

The horrible unfairness of feeling like she had been set up to fail was another one of Max’s big things.

Victoria certainly knew this, and was most likely exploiting this to make her task as difficult as possible.

Well.

Job well fucking done.

It wasn’t all that much later before Max knew she was close and wasn’t going to last.

She tried her best to vocalize something, but she must have realized it too late, since when she opened her mouth, it felt like all her words were choked out of her.

_Oh no._

That was about the last thought Max had before her body seized up entirely.

Of course, Victoria had started to learn the sounds her girlfriend made when she was officially getting off.

Max expected her to immediately cut off the vibrator and reprimand her.

But Victoria didn’t.

Instead, the vibrations just became much less violent, and Max had no choice but to allow it to make her afterglow a more interesting experience.

When the vibrator was turned off entirely, and she had some semblance of control over her breathing, all she could hear was Victoria contently typing away at her keyboard.

“Such a _shame_. But I’m _sure_ you’ll get better at being a good girl after we give you a week of solid denial training.”

“H-huh…?”

Victoria sighed softly and got up from her computer.

Max felt her laying on top, and appreciated the feeling of Victoria’s breathing on her ear.

She especially appreciated Victoria’s low voice.

“That’ll be your _only_ orgasm for this week. We’ll spend _every other night_ edging you for _hours_ until you can learn how to be a good girl, again.”

“O-oh …”

Max probably should have protested more, since Victoria was enough of a fucking tease without edging her for hours.

But her mind was still a little slow on the up-take in her high, and hadn’t even fully processed the news that she wasn’t cumming for a whole week.

She wasn’t even entirely sure if Victoria was exaggerating.

She had to have been, right?

“A… whole week?”

Victoria bit at Max’s ear for a short while.

“Mmm. Is that complaining? We can make it two.”

Max just sighed uselessly and rested limply against the bed.

“I’ll … be good, Mistress.”

“Good!”

Victoria sounded too chipper again, like she did whenever she was being especially cruel in her teasing.

She then sat up and started to remove Max’s restraints.

“Now, then. We’ve got a party to go to and you’ve got some clothes to put on. Without underwear, of course.”


	7. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria picks some clothes out for Max.
> 
> Rachel kicks Chloe's ass.
> 
> Max moans at the wrong time.
> 
> C'est la vie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lighter on kink this week because apparently I can't even write an ostensibly kinky serial without making interconnected subplots whoops.
> 
> Also, we have officially crossed from "kind of canon" to basically something like love is strange, since I was an idiot and involved Chloe. This means I have to involve Rachel, unless I want a sad Chloe, which I don't.

Victoria carefully removed the blindfold that she had placed on her girlfriend.

She paused only briefly when she saw Max’s blue eyes stare at her in that way that they did.

The way that they did whenever Max laid down on her bed and watched Victoria do whatever.

The way that they did whenever Victoria finished getting Max off.

The way that they did whenever Max was a little bit giggly or playful.

The way that they did ever since Victoria started to kiss her.

Victoria was always tremendously jealous of Max’s blue eyes, but that’s not what was going on here.

This was just a deep wellspring of affection that always caught Victoria off guard.

It always had her hesitating for a few seconds longer.

It always had her thinking if she deserved that, or not.

But Victoria had the presence of mind to not get caught staring for an unnaturally long period of time.

She stood up and cracked her neck.

Her arms crossed without really meaning to; it was mostly reflex at this point.

Even with the restraints and blindfold off, Max was quite slow to respond and reengage with her environment.

She did spend an awful lot of time in that position.

Maybe she cramped up.

But then, with a groan, Max carefully sat up, and scooted over to the edge of the bed to dangle her feet off it.

She rested her hands on the edge before looking up to Victoria.

Still with those doe eyes.

“So um. Clothes?”

Right.

Victoria turned on her heel and made her way back over to her closet.

She had picked out what she wanted Max to wear well in advance of this night, but Max didn’t need to know that.

Max didn’t need to know any of the careful and exhaustive planning she put into the scenes or her appearance.

Victoria picked up what she had set aside, turned back around, and marched back over to her bed.

She dropped the clothes next to Max and allowed her to examine them.

Max’s face – and most of her body now – had been long consumed in a blush, which was a shame.

It was a shame because Victoria knew that these clothes were far more revealing than Max normally wore, and Victoria would have liked to enjoy seeing Max blush just visualizing what she’d look like in these.

Victoria made two very deliberate decisions in picking out Max’s attire for the night: all the colors were bright and bold, and there was a skirt.

The skirt was meaningful since Max was not going to be wearing any underwear with this _whatsoever_.

The bright colors were meaningful since she could already visualize Max pulling them off well enough if she ever tried to.

Not that she had a choice, now.

Max bit her lip as she ran her fingers along the two-piece top.

Just enough of her belly would be exposed so that Victoria would have something to play with, unfettered.

And the over shirt would be just warm enough to not let her otherwise freeze to deal from this cold weather.

Max was quiet for a while, just running her fingers along the fabric of the material.

Victoria bit her lip at some point.

Did she disapprove?

This felt like a longer period of time for examination than Victoria was expecting.

Maybe her being nervous of Max’s approval was making this more agonizing than it should have been.

“I never told you my size.”

Victoria blinked a few times.

She wasn’t expecting that response.

She at least had the presence of mind to not looked shocked anymore when Max came up with these unusually piercing questions and statements to hit her with.

Her mind had been racing for a good lie, but she wasn’t turning anything up.

The first thing that came to mind was, simply,

“I guessed.”

But it felt like a terrible lie that no one should believe even as it was coming out.

Victoria could tell Max didn’t believe it _immediately._

Max just sighed, and carefully put down the shirt she had been examining.

She stood up, turned herself around, and stepped back until she could slot herself in Victoria’s front.

Max used her hands to guide one of Victoria’s hands along her belly, and the other into covering her groin.

Victoria raised an eyebrow.

She was more than happy to hold her girlfriend in such a possessive manner, but the timing was unusual.

Once again, Victoria’s mind was going ahead of the rest of herself to figure out what this could mean.

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

Max said, softly.

She sounded a little hurt, even.

_Shit._

Victoria lying to preserve her image was so thoughtless and automatic at this point she didn’t even think about what it might do to Max.

Particularly with their relationship, as it was, so exactingly reliant upon trust.

Victoria sighed slowly and deeply, and closed her eyes.

She tightened the grasp of her arms.

Max started to very gently sway from side to side.

Victoria moved with her.

She didn’t want to lie to Max.

Especially not about something so inconsequential.

“I looked at the size of your clothes on that first night we shared.”

Victoria couldn’t see Max’s face from this position, but that was okay.

This position felt so intimate she didn’t worry much either way.

Now she heard Max sigh.

“So you’ve been thinking about this for a while.”

Victoria bit her lip again.

Now or never.

“Yeah. Ever since that night, if not longer.”

Max paused for just a few agonizing seconds, then giggled.

“That’s so adorable.”

Victoria groaned.

She carefully removed her arms and gently pushed Max to the bed.

“ _Shove it_ , hippy, and get dressed already. We’re going to be late.”

Max didn’t object, and started to put on the clothing that Victoria had picked out for her.

Victoria walked over to her couch so she could nonchalantly see Max’s face.

And the warm smile, there.

“You think I can pull off all of this white and pink?”

Victoria rolled her eyes, now.

“No, I just picked it out for no reason. _Yes_ , _of course_ I think you can pull it off. Stop stalling.”

Victoria had been mindful of controlling her tone, since she wasn’t very good at controlling the content of her words.

She couldn’t always help it when she was snippy and sarcastic, but she could at least bleed the irritation out of her voice until it sounded softer and more gentle.

Thankfully, Max seemed to understand all of this, and never got nervous or tense like she did early on in their relationship.

Max dutifully put on the rest of it without any further objections.

Her smile never went anywhere.

When she was done, she turned to face Victoria.

“So?”

Now it was Victoria’s turn to smile.

“Fucking hot.”

Max’s smile got a bit wider.

Victoria especially liked the contrast of Max’s choker to the rest of her clothing.

Those hoodies she liked to wear had a habit of obscuring it, obnoxiously.

This outfit had an over shirt, but it did nothing to hide the collar.

Everyone would see.

Most wouldn’t know.

But everyone didn’t have to know what it meant.

So long as everyone saw it.

They just enjoyed that pleasant moment for a little while before Max started again.

“Shoes?”

Victoria sighed a bit at this, and shook her head.

“I picked some out, but you weren’t exactly wearing any, and I wasn’t about to ask you your size.”

Max nodded.

“I have some flats in my closet, then. I’ll go get them.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully and watched as Max left the room.

She was doubtful they’d go along correctly with the rest of the ensemble.

Shoes were kind of important to the appearance.

But the ones Max came back with were inoffensive.

Max handed them over to Victoria.

Victoria noticed Max’s smile wasn’t going anywhere as they both examined the shoes.

It wasn’t _quite_ the same shade of white that would match, but it was close enough.

She made a note of the size.

“I’ve never seen you in these.”

Max looked down.

“I have a dress or two in my closet that I can never find the nerve to wear. A-and I hate heels, _so_.”

This made Victoria smile.

She placed a kiss on Max’s forehead and put the shoes back in her hands.

“These will work fine for tonight.”

Max looked back up and there was that _look_ again.

Victoria breathed in carefully.

“So, ah. Is it really going to be … a whole week?”

She could never tell when Max was just being self-conscious or genuinely worried about these things.

Victoria moved in more closely to Max and placed both of her hands on the other girl’s hips.

Her fingers dutifully tapped while she spoke.

“Does it bother you?”

Max shook her head, and started,

“No, it doesn’t, but ---“

Victoria had heard enough if the _no, but_ lines and gently kissed at Max to hush her.

It was quite effective at doing that.

They enjoyed it for a few seconds, and when Victoria pulled away, Max sighed.

“O-okay, fine. A little bit. I’m worried I’ll get too caught up in fantasies again if I can’t uh …”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“If you can’t rely on me to _fuck you into the ground_ until you have a _shattering_ orgasm.”

Max managed to blush some more, somehow, and nodded carefully,

“Yeah, _t-that_. Like the underwear thing, you know?”

It was Victoria’s turn to nod.

She pursed her lips in careful thought.

“We’ll play it by ear, then. I’m definitely not getting you off at the party, but maybe we can parole you for good behavior…”

Max smiled wide and earnest again, and rested her head on Victoria’s shoulder with a content sigh.

“Thanks, Victoria.”

Victoria too rested her head, but she rested hers atop Max’s own.

Then, something seemed to _click_ in Max’s head, and she carefully pulled away to look back up at Victoria.

“Uh… I’m not getting off at the party? Does that mean …?”

Victoria smiled sweetly.

For some reason, her sweet smiles always seemed to make Max stop breathing for a few seconds and get her eyes all moon-like and wide.

She leaned down to whisper dangerously into Max’s ear and bite at it for just a few seconds.

“There’s a special part of the party just for Vortex Club members. Everyone in there will be fine with a little bit of exhibitionism …”

She heard a shaky, unsteady exhale out of Max.

Victoria carefully ran a few of her fingers up and down Max’s still-exposed thighs.

“We’ll start slow, don’t worry. No one will be able to see anything but how much you’re enjoying it …”

When Victoria pulled away, Max’s eyes were long closed, and her body was shivering slightly.

Victoria associated this with her fantasizing, which was fine.

Max could have a few moments to do that.

Eventually,

“So that’s why I look like an … um.”

Max didn’t have the words, and Victoria just scoffed.

The word _whore_ was unspoken, but sat obnoxiously in the absence, anyway.

Maybe Victoria was just projecting, but still.

“You look like someone who is confident in how they look and aren’t afraid to show off some skin. That’s exactly what a girlfriend of mine should be.”

Max nodded slowly.

Victoria continued,

“And if it just so happens I have …”

Victoria paused for emphasis with a gentle thigh-slap,

“… _easy access_ … to your body, I doubt you’re going to be complaining very much.”

Max nodded again.

She considered what Victoria had to say.

Then she made her way to Victoria’s couch so she could sit down and put the shoes on.

“Okay. If _you_ think I look good in these clothes, then I think _I_ look good in these clothes.”

Max sounded content.

Victoria pursed her lips.

She wasn’t sure if she was expecting _more_ or _less_ resistance from Max about dressing like this.

For a while, Victoria just had the nervous appearance all pinned on some bullshit act to endear her to teachers and other losers.

There’s no one who could have those pretty blue eyes and cute freckles and take genuinely good photos who could be _that_ self-conscious.

But if it _was_ just an act, it held up astonishingly well.

Maybe Max just needed some ass-kicking every now and then to show her what Victoria saw.

A happy, skilled photographer, confident in her sexuality, who just so happened to enjoy it when Victoria talked down to her and gave her mind-shattering orgasms.

With really pretty eyes and endearing freckles.

She stood up, fished her phone off Victoria’s night stand, and walked back over to Victoria to carefully entangle their fingers.

Max then kissed her and neither of them cared, for now, if they were a minute or two late.

\---

Chloe had seen a lot of interesting stuff in her life.

And yet, something she had seen a few days ago now wasn’t getting out of her head no matter how much she thought about it.

She had been playing football with some of the guys and skaters.

Afterwards, she’d go with the skaters to some skate park to waste the afternoon away.

Before they left though, Chloe broke off to take a smoke break by a tree.

While she was just starting a bunch of _nothing_ in particular, she got the sight of something quite peculiar indeed.

Someone’s face pressed up against a window.

There were really only a few situations in which this would occur and all of them would be deeply amusing to interrupt.

So, with a shit-eating grin, she carefully put out her smoke, and sneaked her way over to the poor face.

She crouched down when she was close, made her way over …

Those were _definitely_ moans …

And carefully popped up to bang on the glass.

“Yeah! Get some!”

What she wasn’t, then, expecting, was to see her childhood friend there.

What she was expecting _even less_ was her childhood friend ducking down, and the unmistakable bitchy visage of Victoria glaring at her.

The blinds closed.

And Chloe was kind of in a stupor for the rest of the day.

There was _no way_ the Max she knew associated with Victoria.

Chloe was still kind of pissed off at Max for ignoring her all this time, but Chloe never imagined that her best childhood friend could change, like that.

Maybe the Max she knew stopped existing in Seattle.

It was a scary thought.

 

“So go talk to her. See if she’s different.”

Rachel’s answer was cheery but lacked subtlety.

Like she could just waltz up to Max and talk to her after that.

There’d have to be ---

“And I _know_ you’re over-thinking it now. Stop that.”

Chloe frowned.

She hated it when Rachel seemed to read her mind, like that.

Was it that obvious from her doom and gloom expression?

Chloe crossed her arms.

They’d been sitting on the edge of some drained pool.

Taking a break from skating.

Chloe had considered getting high, but she wanted her brain lucid and as coherent as it could be as she picked through this.

Rachel sighed, since Chloe _still_ hadn’t said anything.

“Look. There’s a Vortex Club party tomorrow. We’ll both go there, relax, and find Max after you’ve put this out of your mind and stopped thinking about it. I’ll be your moral support.”

Chloe looked to Rachel and pursed her lips.

“I hate those things.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“You hate them when _I’m_ not there.”

Chloe opened her mouth, but closed it after a few seconds with a severe sigh.

Rachel was fucking right again and her shit-eating grin telegraphed that she knew it.

“Fine, yes, okay. I should stock up on some more stuff from Nathan, anyway. Justin’s been relentless on the weed.”

Rachel leaned over and rested her head on Chloe’s shoulder.

“Maybe you can buy a pair from Nathan, too, and you won’t need me to solve all of your relationship troubles.”

Chloe groaned, but playfully shoved Rachel.

“Ugh, you’re _such a bitch_ sometimes.”

Rachel laughed contently as she was shoved.

When she rebound, she smacked her face right into Chloe’s cheeks and kissed her.

“But you’re smiling, babe.”

Chloe was.

\---

Taylor was receiving call from a number she didn’t recognize and it was just _way_ too loud to hear anything over this music.

So she quickly made her way outside and hastily answered it.

“New faaaa-own, who dis?”

“Oh, really? Already?”

“She saw _what_?”

“Oh my goooooood.”

“ _Duh_. Of course I’ll help you.”

“Uh-huh. VIP section. Ten minutes. Vicky and Maxi will be there.”

“Buh-bye.”

Taylor was grinning deviously as she hung up her phone and made her way back into the party.

She had to find Victoria first, but that was okay, since she had a hunch where she probably was.

On the dance floor, with Max, being all gay and adorable and cute.

\---

Victoria diligently pulled her girlfriend into the special, VIP section of the party.

Just for members of the Vortex Club.

Max wasn’t a member, but Victoria didn’t care.

Not like anyone was going to fucking challenge Victoria on this.

Especially not when ---

“There she is.”

Nathan stood up from his section on the couch and immediately made a Bee line for the two.

Victoria almost frowned, but kept her composure.

She could feel Max stiffen up by proxy to him, even though she’d already had a drink or two in her and was a bit giggly by now.

She rubbed Max’s shoulder opposite her own and carefully peered at Nathan.

“You’ve been expecting me.”

Nathan scoffed.

“No, why on earth would I want to see you being a fuckin’ dyke? Yeah, of course I am. _Duh_.”

He accentuated his words by raising up his drink – some unlabeled beer bottle.

At first, he just pointed the open end at the two of them, but then brought it back to himself to take a drink.

“Get your ass in here already.”

Victoria just rolled her eyes and guided Max past Nathan to the couch in the center of the room.

They made special care to have a couch like this in all their parties.

Nathan insisted on having it, so that he could have some place to enjoy whomever he brought back.

Victoria insisted it be lined with dozens of blankets, since while she did enjoy some people back here as well, she typically appreciated more privacy in the matter.

Max still wasn’t very comfortable as they both settled down into the couch.

Victoria draped some blankets over their laps.

In some sense, she was lucky, since while there were other Vortex club members here, only Taylor, Nathan, and his date, were awake. Courtney, Hayden, and a few other no-name sycophants had passed-out drunk already.

Or maybe it was drugs.

Either way, all they had to deal with was the very knowing, shit-eating grin of Taylor, and Nathan’s endlessly amused smile.

“Vic says you kissed her and that got you two fucking like rabbits.”

Nathan started, impatiently, almost as soon as Victoria finished placing the blanket down.

This was a lie, but it was a very intentional one. Victoria figured that Nathan would be impossibly endeared to the idea of someone who had enough of a nerve to stand up to Victoria to kiss her.

All the “dates” that Victoria engaged with wouldn’t even fucking think of doing something like that.

They knew better.

It wasn’t romance.

It was just sex.

But Max was different, and Victoria had spent a while thinking of a way to make the others appreciate this difference meaningfully.

“Y-yeah.”

Victoria could still hear the uncertainty in Max’s voice as she confirmed the lie.

Most people had trouble talking directly to Nathan.

But at least when he was amused, he wasn’t giving people death glares, or being all that outwardly intimidating.

This was another reason for the lie.

Nathan scoffed.

“Still got that bullshit stammer. Whatever.”

He had been leaning over with his hands interlocked. He leaned back, now, to let his date come back to straddling his lap, again.

Victoria was surprised he wasn’t interested in grilling Max further, but he never particularly cared for her, anyway.

After a few moments of silence, Max placed a soft kiss on Victoria’s neck.

Victoria looked down to see her looking up.

“I want to relax.”

She kept it at a loud-enough volume that it could still be heard over the music in here, but quiet enough so that Taylor – who hadn’t looked away since – wouldn't hear.

Victoria pursed her lips off to one side.

She paused for a few moments, then smiled wide.

Max’s breathing audibly hitched.

Victoria liked the effect even just her smiles had on her girlfriend, now.

She and snaked her hand further underneath the blanket.

She rode it right up and forcefully grabbed at Max’s groin.

This was just to milk out an unsteady, shaky, surprised gasp out of her, before the attention became subtler and more loving.

With that, Max’s eyes closed and she rested herself on Victoria’s chest and shoulder, with one of her hands just making indiscriminate patterns on Victoria’s clothing.

The blanket hid away anything explicit, but it wasn’t particularly hard to guess what was happening with the way Victoria’s arm came down, and the lump going down Max’s legs to her groin.

Nor was it hard to figure out what was going on from Max’s obscene, all-consuming blush, nor the rapidity of her breathing or bluntness of her sounds.

And that was, frankly, just fine, to Victoria.

She liked going through the party with Max tucked to her side, with her hand on Max’s shoulder.

She liked everyone seeing it.

Cognitively, she knew she probably shouldn’t.

Max’s reputation was still one of a loser.

But that was yet another reason for her careful deception to her friends.

Someone who had the balls to do that to Victoria couldn’t have been that much of a pathetic loser.

If Victoria played everything out right, she could end up casting Max as more of someone who just needed an opportunity to show everyone her true colors.

Which, if she thought about it a bit more, was closer to what Max was, anyway.

This was an easier reputation to work with.

Plus, Max was legitimately good-looking with just the faintest bit of makeup to highlight her eyes, and the proper clothing.

A little bit of alcohol helped Max to act the bit, too.

Victoria wasn’t sure if she had ever drunk before, and so watched like a hawk whenever drinks were offered.

Max didn’t like how it tasted, anyway, so it’s not like she was all that eager to drink much.

But Victoria still wanted to ease Max into this life style, if was going to become a regular fixture of her life.

A louder-than-usual moan kicked Victoria out of her idle scheming to look down at her thirsty girlfriend some more.

Her blush was starting to spread to more than just her face, now.

Taylor still hadn’t fucking looked away and her shit-eating grin had gone precisely nowhere.

Whatever.

She could stare if she wanted to.

Victoria made a point of making eye contact with Taylor and tracing a nail along the edge of Max’s collar for a few seconds.

It just made Taylor giggle and pat at her own lap excitedly.

It wasn’t like Victoria needed to emphasize it anymore, but if there was anyone in the club who might read more into it than just as a fashion item, it’d be Taylor.

Victoria then heard Nathan finishing with his date, and brusquely telling her to get the fuck out.

The poor girl was probably too drunk to realize what was happening before she was kicked out of the longue.

Victoria didn’t get to think of it too much, since Max started to pathetically gyrate herself and pant.

It was rather distracting.

She slowed her attention to Max, since she was getting a bit too rowdy.

Max still wasn’t allowed to get off, yet.

She whined pathetically, but she eventually got the hint.

Max was quieter and still, after that.

After she had accepted her fate.

Victoria sighed contently, now, and allowed herself to relax back into the couch for a few minutes with a warm smile.

What a way to spend a night.

 

But then,

“Nathaaaaaaaaan.”

Victoria felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up _immediately._

She knew that voice.

Her face snapped to the entrance of the longue so quick she might have thought it would snap.

Rachel.

Of-fucking-course it would be her.

Victoria bit into her lip as Rachel strolled into the room, casually singing Nathan’s name.

She liked absolutely nothing Rachel did, and was impossibly fucking jealous of her.

Rachel had the foresight to seem to be everywhere, at once, and never seemed to misstep or say the wrong things.

It’s like she had the script to life, or something, and was just playing everyone else around her.

Nathan was oblivious to it, though.

He was eager to please her.

Like so many other people.

He smiled and immediately got up to exchange brief hugs.

This annoyed Victoria.

But then, she saw the girl coming in tow behind Rachel.

That Chloe girl.

And boy did she look jealous as fuck.

Victoria’s face shifted into the comfortable neutral-ness it had before.

What was her deal with all of this?

Rachel continued to Nathan,

“Chloe’s here to buy more weed. You’ve got some, yeah?”

He scoffed and pulled away, to cross his arms.

“Fuckin’ duh.”

He looked to Chloe.

Chloe, for her part, was stewing in such obvious jealousy that she didn’t even notice the rest of the scene, yet. She was transfixed on Nathan and Rachel.

“C’mon.”

She grunted, and after a few seconds’ hesitation, made her way past Rachel, to follow Nathan back to the far end of the room.

Satisfied, Rachel then looked to Taylor.

They exchanged a look Victoria didn’t understand.

And it pissed her off, again.

Here Rachel was, doing some other scheme again, one that Victoria wasn’t privy to at all.

And Rachel had no issues interweaving people tight and close to Victoria into these schemes so effortlessly.

Was she really the only one who saw Rachel for who she was?

Taylor got up from the couch and took two beers with her.

She’d been saving them.

Taylor walked over to Rachel, handed one of the beers over, and they exchanged pleasant banter not meant for Victoria’s ears.

It fucking pissed her off.

To the point that she heard some pathetic whimpering from Max,

“N-not so… rough.”

Victoria blinked, and realized she had probably inexplicably involved her nails, again, in her frustration.

Max needed some time to work up to attention like that, and probably wasn’t getting enough of it, since Rachel had a habit of flipping on Victoria’s anger like a fucking switch.

So with a careful, deep sigh, Victoria forced herself to be more calm.

It wasn’t going to do her any good to be upset, right now.

She could put Rachel’s fucking perfect scheming out of her mind by enjoying her adorable little thirsty girlfriend.

As recompense, Victoria’s efforts picked up again, and Max tightly welded her eyes closed.

The attention was such that Max’s breathing stopped and her body just refused to do anything else for a few seconds.

This would have been fine, but ---

 

“Max?”

 

That voice, equal parts horrified and amused.

 

Victoria looked up to see Chloe, by Rachel and Taylor, only now, very observantly, noticing what was transpiring on the couch.

But Victoria did not have the presence of mind to stop her attentions.

Until Max uttered the loudest, least subtle moan of the night, anyway.

Victoria looked to Max, then to Chloe again, who was still totally horrified.

She then stopped her attentions out-right, and carefully removed her hand from Max’s groin.

While keeping positive eye contact with Chloe, she licked her fingers clean, and confidently purred out,

“Chloe. So nice of you to join us.”

Victoria didn’t fully remember what Max said Chloe was to her.

She couldn’t have been an ex, since Max was a virgin when they met.

Either way, she needed to know as much as anyone that Max was hers, now.

And that fucking look Chloe had on her face in response was priceless, so rubbing it in to exaggerate it was only making this sweeter.

Victoria should have taken a picture.

After a few silent seconds, sensing Chloe was broken, Rachel moved away from Taylor, and shoved Chloe towards the couch.

They were giggling like school girls.

“No fucking way.”

Now, Chloe could force words out of her mouth.

“I …”

Victoria looked down again to see a positively horrified Max.

She pursed her lips, finished cleaning her hand off, and put it on Max’s opposite shoulder to rub vigorously.

Max, for her part, still couldn’t start her sentence.

It probably didn’t help that she was forcing her brain to work when had been so close to orgasm not just a few seconds, earlier.

 

This was going to be an interesting conversation, if their reactions were anything to go by.

It made Victoria grin stupidly as she looked back to Chloe, and kept eye contact.


	8. We Cool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max fantasizes.
> 
> Max is cold.
> 
> Victoria isn't.
> 
> Max moans at the wrong time.
> 
> Chloe questions Max's questionable taste in women.

Max nestled into her girlfriend’s shoulder and neck.

She was being groped in the least subtle way imaginable, in the least subtle place possible.

But that was okay.

The people in this room who were still coherent could watch if they wanted to.

It helped that anything explicit was hidden away by a blanket.

All that they saw was Victoria’s hand being placed somewhere unmistakable, and the equally unmistakable response earned out of Max from it.

There was an exciting element being added to all of this from the publicness of it.

Everyone in here knew exactly what Max was to Victoria, now.

Victoria’s attentions were gentle now, but none-the-less exhilarating, particularly in this group setting.

Max gyrated softly and exhaled sharply into Victoria’s neck.

She hadn’t been given permission to orgasm yet, but these attentions weren’t enough to get her off anyway.

The point wasn’t for her to get off.

The point was just for her to get more and more needy and titillated until _something_ gave away.

Max closed her eyes and recalled one of her earlier fantasies.

They didn’t very often involve her being denied in this manner, but she had a feeling that was going to change, if Victoria was to make this a regular fixture of their interplay.

She really shouldn’t be fantasizing all that much right now – it tended to get her off far more quickly and easily, which would probably annoy Victoria.

But that didn’t stop her from losing herself in her thoughts and dreams.

She just let her mouth hang agape, for now.

It was easier that way, and more rewarding for the both of them, if there was as little resistance to the sounds her body wanted to make as possible.

\---

Max tried to keep her breathing calm as she heard the door opening to the little room.

Her position in the room was compromising, to say the least.

Her hands were bound well above her head, and most of her weight was actually being supported by the restraints, there.

One of her legs were pulled away from the floor by similar restraints, and didn’t allow her to hide any of her decency.

She was being pulled up past her height, to the point that she had to stand on her very tippy toes of her other foot.

Of course, she was also stark naked.

A detail which came into tremendous relief when Victoria’s very warm hands came to rub up along her inner-thighs.

Max was desperately needy for the warmth.

This room was colder than she was comfortable with.

It made her pine after Victoria’s touch and affections in more ways than she thought even possible, before.

“Having a good time in here, slave?”

Her voice, as cold and uncaring as the rest of the room.

Max nodded, despite herself.

She couldn’t see Victoria; she was blindfolded.

But she looked in the direction of her voice, either way.

“Yes Mistress. Please keep touching me.”

Max found it so much easier to debase and humiliate herself in her fantasies.

Victoria laughed and spanked directly at Max’s groin entirely too roughly.

Max hissed and gritted her teeth, but was desperate for any kind of warm attention.

Her position didn’t really allow her much agency or freedom of movement, but she’d be damned if she didn’t try to gyrate herself into the attentions as much as possible.

After the slap, Victoria’s hand viciously rubbed for a few blissfully wonderful seconds.

Then, she just held, possessively.

Max’s moans were entirely too pathetic and needy for how little attention she had received at this point, but she didn’t care.

“How long has it been since you’ve cum, slave?”

Max continued to squirm to try and get some more attention onto herself,

“I’m not s-sure, Mistress. A month, I t-think.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

Much to Max’s enjoyment, the hand began to rub methodically, and carefully.

“And why has it been a month?”

Max bit her lip, but then exhaled sharply.

“B-because I came without your permission, Mistress. I don’t deserve to cum if I’m not a good girl.”

Her words came out easily, somehow.

She had learned how talk in a breathless, half-moaning manner that she knew Victoria enjoyed to hear.

And her efforts didn’t go unrewarded.

Victoria’s attentions became more vigorous for another few, precious seconds.

Then her hand dangerously trailed upwards at an agonizing pace.

Max knew exactly what she was going for and it made breathe as quickly as she had in a long while.

In her fantasies, Max was pierced. In more ways than one.

And the feeling of Victoria playing with her clitoral piercing, even if entirely imagined at this point, was beyond her words.

This wasn’t something she didn’t think she’d tell the _actual_ Victoria about, but _this_ Victoria having such an easy button to play with Max and get her all cross-eyed was more than acceptable.

And the moans and pathetic whimpers she offered all the more exciting and enticing.

“Now now… We don’t want you to get off _so close_ to when you’ll be allowed to cum, again. We’d have to extend it, or something.”

Max tried, but she really just couldn’t speak at all when her lower piercing was being played with, like this.

And Victoria was cruel and unforgiving, so she moved her second hand to begin righteously where the first one stopped, earlier.

It felt like Victoria was setting her up to fail, again.

And the idea was impossibly erotic to Max for reasons she still hadn’t fully comprehended.

“Oh no.”

Victoria’s voice became low and sultry. Max could feel her breathing against her ear, biting at it, possessively.

“I can see it in your body. You’re too pent up to last very long. What a shame.”

Victoria stopped playing with the piercing. That hand just roamed around Max’s cold body, instead.

Max wasn’t sure if she liked it better when it was making her warm from direct or warm from arousal, but she appreciated its efforts either way.

At least she could sort of form words, now.

“N-not very long, Mistress, I-I’m sorry…”

Victoria scoffed, but it was gentle and playful.

“If you were sorry, you would learn to control your body and just not orgasm. But you’re such a selfish little slave that needs orgasms … like three times a month! So selfish.”

Max found it interesting to find a way to gyrate and squirm so that she was in more direct contact with both hands.

“M-maybe you can make me be good in other ways, Mistress.”

This seemed to pique Victoria’s attention.

Max could already see her predatory grin, even if she couldn’t.

“Ooooooh?”

Victoria’s voice came out playful, sing-song.

Max nodded, and swallowed, to try and steady her voice.

“L-like … a chastity belt, or something.”

Victoria chuckled dangerously.

Max still deeply enjoyed the feeling of Victoria’s breathing colliding harshly against fresh bite marks along her ear.

“I think that can be arranged.”

Victoria moved her face down lower, and began to bite forcefully at Max’s neck.

Her lower hand got devilishly quick and forceful, in the manner it always did when getting Max off as quickly as possible was a priority.

Max flung her head backwards and moaned as loud as she had the entire night.

This was so unfair.

Max was loving every second of it.

“P-please, Mistress, can …”

She didn’t even get to finish her question,

“ _No_.”

She bit down on her own lip as hard as she could and tried.

By golly did she try.

But Victoria’s hands were too learned of Max’s body by now.

Her pacing too adept to Max’s needs.

Her teasing too fine-tuned to Max’s weaknesses.

She wasn’t going to last any longer than a few seconds more.

And as she tried to find the resolve in her body to reject the wave that was threatening to overwhelm her soon, she ---

\---

“Max?”

The word quite painfully kicked Max out of her fantasies.

Not before her body emitted an impossibly embarrassing sound of getting off, though.

_Good lord._

With some considerable effort and with her body complaining righteously throughout, Max peeled her attention fully away from her fantasies and Victoria to look at the source of the voice.

Max had to wipe her mouth clean of some drool.

And at least _try_ to steady her breathing.

The voice was familiar, but the person who had it looked totally different.

It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to Max, but this version of Chloe looked nothing like her childhood friend.

Tattoos.

Blue, short hair.

Hardly any more clothing than a wife beater and some torn jeans.

Dangerously excited eyes.

Well, that last one was the same, but overall, this Chloe looked so different.

Max probably wouldn’t have even recognized her without hearing her voice and having a good chunk of time to stare at her face and look into her eyes.

Not that that wasn’t already making this more awkward.

Max wracked her brain for something to say to Chloe about all of this.

She sounded shocked, horrified, appalled.

But there was a faint undercurrent of amusement.

Chloe always kind of had that going on.

Or at least, she did when they were young.

Still, this was probably as mortifying for her as it was for Max.

Mercifully, Victoria’s hand removed itself from Max’s groin.

That made it easier to think, at least.

But she could hear Victoria licking her hand clean.

“Chloe. So nice of you to join us.”

Victoria’s tone was so utterly thick with her own barely-restrained amusement and confidence.

_Oh no._

Max didn’t even _think_ about how this reunion might have occurred if Victoria was an _active_ participant.

Especially in this kind of circumstance, where Max was very obviously being fingered by her not a few seconds earlier.

Chloe looked broken, unable to process what she was seeing.

Rachel broke away from Taylor to shove Chloe closer.

Max blinked at this.

Did Rachel and Taylor have some kind of relationship with Chloe?

Rachel was on the same floor as Max.

She wasn’t in her room all that often, but it was weird to think of Chloe potentially just chilling in a room so close to Max’s own.

Chloe found some words after being awkwardly shoved more towards the couch.

“No fucking way.”

She definitely sounded more horrified than anything else, at this point.

Max should have probably said something, now, to try and defuse the situation before it got even worse.

But all that came out was a weak,

“I …”

Victoria then started to rub at Max’s shoulder.

Max felt more confident when Victoria wrapped her arm around and had Max in her arms, like this.

She figured that’s probably why Victoria did that.

But this was asking a bit too much of her brain and self, right now.

Not right after she almost got off.

Not after she spent god knows how long fantasizing about Victoria using her.

Max raised both of her hands up and forcefully applied pressure to her eyebrows and cheeks.

She dragged them down with a groan, and when they left her face, she inhaled sharply.

She tried to clear her mind of everything else that had gone on tonight and just _focus_ on Chloe.

“Chloe. Um. _Hi_.”

At least Max’s voice wasn’t coming out halting or uneven. Her body was getting better at dealing with the fact it was just going to be flustered beyond reason, sometimes.

“Max …”

Chloe finally found the presence of mind to get her jaw off the floor and sit down on the couch.

She chose Taylor’s old spot, which was quite close to the two of them.

Max considered this a good-enough sign, at least, if she sat down so close.

Chloe folded her hands together and interlocked her fingers.

She looked down at the floor before looking at Max again.

Her lips were pursed into a fine line.

“Is it really as bad as it looks?”

Max started,

“No, I ---“

But Victoria interrupted,

“Oh, you have _no idea_. It’s even _worse_ than it looks.”

_God damn it._

Max flinched both at Victoria’s still entirely-too-playful tone and the shit-eating grin Max just _knew_ she had to have been wearing to accompany it.

Chloe’s face scrunched up and she shot Victoria a harsh glare.

Victoria just chuckled quietly.

This was not a good dynamic.

Say something, Max.

“We’re um, girlfriends, Chloe.”

This got Chloe’s attention, again.

She looked back to Max and her face softened up considerably.

“No shit?”

Max almost said something, but Victoria beat her to the punch, again.

“Max kissed me after I had her up against a wall. She had to be _mine_ , after that.”

 _Oh no_.

The lie.

There was no way that lie would go over well with Chloe.

It presented Max as a totally different person and wasn’t going to help anything _at all_ right now.

Sure enough, Chloe looked back to Victoria, and her face went right back to that death glare.

She eventually peeled her face to look at Max, and her face softened up again.

The juxtaposition of the two looks was almost comical, to the point that Max was wondering if Chloe was even aware she was doing it.

Her voice came out softly, though.

“My little Max is all grown up, then. Kissing _strange_ ,” Chloe really leaned in on the emphasis with a slight lookup to Victoria, “women without hesitation, like that.”

Max closed her eyes and exhaled.

She couldn’t contradict the lie with Nathan and all of them still _right there_.

She didn’t want Chloe to think she was like _that_ , though.

But was she, really?

She slept with Victoria after barely knowing more than her name.

She wasn’t a pure little angel. Not the one Chloe knew, anyway.

Max yielded,

“I guess you could say that.”

Chloe then nodded, and looked down to the floor.

After a few seconds,

“You’ve changed.”

Max snorted without meaning to,

“Speak for yourself.”

This got a sideways smirk from Chloe, at least.

Max could see it even with Chloe’s downwards gaze.

Rachel piped in,

“Oh yeaaah. Babe, Clo used to wear a _mohawk_.”

Max looked up to Rachel to see her miming gagging.

But when Chloe looked back, Rachel quickly snapped into just smiling brightly.

She then made a kissy kissy face.

Chloe just groaned.

But when she looked back to Max, she was smiling, at least.

“Yeah alright. So we’re both a little different now, I guess. Still.”

Chloe hesitated, and her voice and face became more serious.

“With _Victoria_ …”

Max honestly didn’t know how to defend the accusation of her dating Victoria right now, with this social group in ear shot.

Just as well, Victoria was interested in rebutting,

“Obviously, she’s gotten a _much_ better taste in women, now.”

Max started to scream internally, and gave a sidelong look to Victoria.

Of course, she was grinning so very wide and proudly.

She was enjoying every second of this.

Relishing in it.

Max could hear Taylor and Rachel suppress laughter --- poorly --- from across the room.

Why oh why did Max have to have her reunion with her best friend in this manner, with a peanut gallery of drunks, of all things?

Max looked back to Chloe, expecting her to be angry as could be, right now.

But she had an uneven grin, instead.

She scoffed and closed her eyes.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaait.”

Chloe breathed in sharply and her grin suddenly consumed her face.

Max was more familiar with this side of Chloe.

It made her smile softly, just by proxy.

“Nope, wait, yup, I totally get it now.”

Chloe opened her eyes and she was beaming brightly.

Max blinked.

“You do?”

Chloe nodded thoughtfully.

“Duh. You’re just using her for the sex. I get it now. Good one, Maxaroni.”

Max could feel Victoria’s grasp on her shoulder tighten up.

That must have gotten under her skin.

Max bit her lip, and opened her mouth to say something, but ---

“ _No._ ”

Victoria beat her too it, again, and her voice was much more forceful than Max could have ever made it.

Max knew Chloe was just playing around, probably to get back at Victoria’s sniping all of this time, but Victoria’s response seemed to unbalance her for a few seconds.

Max could feel Victoria’s breathing on her ear and she knew what she probably wanted to do, right now.

She carefully turned her face to the side and adjusted her position slightly so that they could kiss.

It was more forceful on Victoria’s behalf than it usually was, but Max was kind of expecting that, anyway.

When Max broke away, a little breathless, Chloe had this look on her face that she couldn’t quite parse.

Thoughtful is what her mind eventually offered, as Chloe nodded.

“Oh.”

Max didn’t realize how wide her own smile was until it fell when she sighed.

“Listen, we um, can talk about it later, okay, Chloe?”

Max hesitated, then hurriedly added,

“If you’re not still mad at me, I mean.”

Chloe pursed her lips and nodded.

“Oh yeah no. Still pretty pissed.”

She said it so nonchalantly, though. Like she was talking about the weather.

Max frowned.

She heard Rachel sigh,

“Play _nice_ , Chloe.”

Chloe looked back for a few moments, and eventually looked back forward to Max with an exaggerated, pained groan.

“Fine-fine-fine, _Jesus_.”

She cleared her throat.

“But I guess we have a lot to talk about, now, and I’d like to. Especially about your …”

Chloe paused, to look at Victoria,

“… _better_ taste in women.”

When Chloe looked back to Max, she was smiling, though.

It made Max smile, too.

They shared that smile for a few precious seconds.

Victoria spoke up,

“Good. Mushy time over. I’m going to back to fucking my girlfriend, now.”

Max giggled a little uneasily as Victoria’s hand slowly snaked its way back down.

Victoria’s tone dropped down and became impossibly playful.

“Feel free to watch. She gets off on it, you know.”

Max started to scream internally, again.

Chloe did _not_ need to know that.

Her blush was everywhere.

But Chloe seemed to enjoy the news more than anything else, now.

“Oh _really_? That’s good to know.”

_Oh no._

It was bad enough that she had caught them earlier, but now ---

_No._

Max tried to protest,

“Chloe – _no_ – it’s –“

But Victoria had been anticipating this, apparently, and grasped at her groin in the forceful, demanding way that tended to overwhelm her.

And it did.

Her sentence just trailed off to an unsteady, shaky exhale, and her eyes tightly closed.

Chloe just laughed.

When Max could will her eyes into opening again, Chloe had stood up and was making her way back to Taylor and Rachel.

Max whined uselessly and collapsed against her possessive, teasing girlfriend.

Too late now.

That cat was out of that bag.

At least that didn’t go off as badly as it could have.

Max closed her eyes and just sighed.

Rachel seemed to be preventing Chloe from getting too negative about the whole ordeal.

And there was a playful rivalry going on between Chloe and Victoria that seemed to redirect any anger or frustration Chloe would have had about the time apart.

Max’s thoughts were interrupted by Rachel,

“Maaaaax.”

When she opened her eyes, she saw the trio about to leave the lounge, but Rachel was looking back at them.

“You two are an _adorable_ couple, by the by. Congrats.”

Taylor chimed in,

“Soooooooo cute.”

Chloe just scoffed and left ahead of the two.

Max felt her blush consuming more of her body.

But that probably had something to do with Victoria’s hand and how it definitely hadn’t gone anywhere, since.

“T-thanks.”

_Damn it._

Her voice came out shaky and unsteady.

Short of a moan, really.

The remaining two just left, giggling like school children.

Max closed her eyes again, and went back to relaxing against Victoria.

She just wanted to focus on the lavender, for now.

What a way to spend a night.

Frustrated, and teased in more ways than one, but.

Peaceful.

Content.

Happy.

Max was smiling as her girlfriend skillfully milked more moans out of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really need to write more scenes with Victoria and Chloe both in them.


	9. Peaceful Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Victoria lay down together.
> 
> Max begs.
> 
> Max moans.
> 
> But then she wonders.
> 
> Later, Chloe wonders, too.

It was for these peaceful moments.

This stillness.

On a hazy weekend morning.

No obligations.

No pressing responsibilities.

No need to get up.

Victoria could just ---

Lay here.

With her arms carefully but purposefully entangled around her smaller girlfriend.

The blinds leading into her room were tilted just to let in enough light.

Just enough to know that it was early morning out.

Still, the sun’s influence left a calming yellow-orange-golden glow throughout her room.

Little slants of light along the length of her bed and the room in general.

She was warm and content – Max’s body was plenty warm, and plenty comfortable.

Sleeping entangled was a comfort for the both of them.

It was meaningful to Victoria to go to sleep knowing that the other body wouldn’t leave her in the morning.

Or deny it.

Or insist nothing was meant by it.

Or for her to do the same.

It was a different kind of experience, wholly unexpected but impossibly intoxicating whence discovered.

It was peace.

Stability.

Meaning.

Her relationship with Max _meant_ something.

To think of the way it started …

Max emitted a soft, gentle noise.

Too faint to be called a grunt, too guttural to be called a hum.

She smacked her lips and breathed with her mouth open.

Victoria gently moved one of her hands down to rest on her girlfriend’s bare belly.

To feel the rising and falling of her chest become more pronounced as she started to wake up.

The stillness was happily inescapable as Max slowly woke up.

She’d been laying the little to Victoria’s big spoon.

But like a cat, she needed her stretching when she awoke.

Victoria loosened her grasp to give Max the space she needed for these stretches.

The space felt like a betrayal so early in the morning.

But Max was done with it sooner rather than later.

She put her hands up far above her head, tightly clasped them together, and arched her back.

Flexing as much of her body simultaneously as possible, to wake it all up.

And when she collapsed back onto the bed, she carefully turned around so that the two could face one another.

The betrayal undone.

Victoria closed her eyes and leaned forward just enough to kiss Max on the lips.

When they separated, Victoria soaked in the happy, content sigh that Max made, and enjoyed the gentle sensations of exhaled air flowing down her front.

They often didn’t need words for a while.

It was enough – more than enough – just to look at one another.

To hold each other with naked enjoyment and comfort.

But there was a slight twinkle in Max’s eye.

An unusual wryness to her smile this morning.

“I dreamed about you last night.”

Victoria closed her eyes again and exhaled with a pointed amount of effort.

Good lord.

Not that this was _unusual_ , but.

Victoria’s mind had already been wandering from her earlier reflections.

She leaned forward to kiss again, and as they broke, she gently nipped and nibbled on Max’s lower lip for a few moments.

She kissed her way over to an ear to whisper dangerously into it.

“Dreamed like …?”

Victoria moved her arms downwards to rub along Max’s exposed sides.

Max squirmed and fidgeted, but not in protest.

Her body’s movements were timed to make the most of the contact with Victoria’s hands.

“Yeah …”

She exhaled it so gently and so faintly it was barely even a whisper.

Victoria smiled widely, though not that Max could see it right now.

“What’d I do …?”

Max closed her eyes and arched her back again, this time to press it into more righteous contact with Victoria’s own.

“This … but …”

Victoria kissed her way back to Max’s lips for another soft kiss.

“But … ?”

To emphasize, her hands lowered further, making dangerously teasing patterns along Max’s outer thighs with her nails unhindered.

Max squirmed and gyrated again, still trying to encourage more forceful contact against her own skin.

“More … mmmnh. Direct.”

Those gentle not-quite grunt not-quite humming sounds, again.

Victoria only heard them when they were both hardly awake in bed, like this.

They were cherished.

“Oh, really?”

Victoria’s mock surprise fooled neither, but that wasn’t the intent.

It was the playfulness that made Max’s otherwise flat features curve up slightly into a smile, knowing full well what was about to happen.

Victoria kept one hand tracing along Max’s belly button, while the other moved to ride up along her inner thigh.

Max adjusted her body’s position so that it was more comfortable to spread her legs and give her Mistress all of the access she desired.

By now, her mouth was gaping stupidly and she was breathing entirely through it.

Any slight vocalization had no chance to hide, this way.

Another thing Victoria cherished dearly.

“Like this?”

Max carefully shook her head and gyrated again, trying to push her groin into Victoria’s hand.

But this wasn’t the first nor the tenth time she’d tried this, and Victoria’s hand was well learned on how to stay exactly where it wanted to be, regardless of her motions.

As frustrating as Victoria wanted it to be.

“Noooo … more … direct.”

Max had entirely given up on trying to talk without sounding as aroused as she felt by now, with each word overwhelmed by her increasingly heavy breathing.

Only when Max stopped trying to encourage the contact she so desperately wanted did Victoria’s hand break free from her inner thigh and forcefully run up the length of her groin.

Normally, Victoria would have underwear to contend with.

Max didn’t usually sleep naked.

But this was the weekend.

She wasn’t allowed underwear on the weekend.

So just the one touch was more than enough to Max’s body to freeze up and her face to dance through a few expressions.

After her face settled, she whined inconsolably and twisted her body around uselessly.

“Mmnn… _fuck_.”

A delightfully wonderful side effect of Victoria exactly controlling her girlfriend’s sex life was how easy it was to get her into the mood.

It changed the tenor of Max’s dialog in a way Victoria found impossibly compelling.

“What was I doing with my fingers?”

Max bit her lower lip for a few seconds, and Victoria kissed at her briefly.

Max smacked her lips again.

“Fu … _UCKING_ … me, Mistress.”

She hadn’t planned on speaking so unevenly, but Victoria was cruel and decided another forceful rub was in order as soon as she was certain Max was going to be appropriately vulgar.

Victoria grinned wide and rested her hand just a little shy of contact.

“What was that? I didn’t hear you.”

Max whined again, especially pathetic in her gyrations with the hand so close and yet so far.

“Fucking me, fucking me, fucking me, fuuucking me …”

Her voice pitched up and became weaker, more halting with every repetition. 

It would have taken _hours_ to work Max up to be so excitingly vulgar before.

Victoria sighed contently and rested her cheek on Max’s own, enjoying the intermingling of their mutual heated blushes.

Her hand closed the gap of its dispassionate distance and began to carefully but firmly rub and stroke.

Max sighed contently herself, and melted more thoroughly into the bed and Victoria’s arms.

Thoughtlessly, she broke her own hands free of Victoria’s body and brought them behind her own back.

This wasn’t actually a requirement of Victoria’s – just something Max liked to do.

Perhaps it was easier for her to not masturbate with her hands far and away from any such contact.

Either way, Victoria decided to capitalize on it.

“Turn around.”

Victoria broke both of her hands and arms away, and after a short moment of complaining with a whine, she obeyed and hurriedly flopped herself back into the spooning position she’d prior assumed.

Thoughtlessly, Victoria hugged Max’s body close, and kept those hands behind her back glued between their bodies.

She knew Max liked it better when there was even a trivial amount of resistance against her hands, like that.

This was a much more natural position for masturbating her girlfriend, anyway.

When the hand returned its attentions were much fiercer for all of a few moments.

Victoria soaked in the random and odd sounds Max squeaked out as a result.

She especially enjoyed Max’s breathing officially breaking and becoming heavy enough to be indistinguishable from panting.

Because she was cruel, Victoria enjoyed talking to Max the most when she was so broken and burdened with difficulties.

“Mmmm… Did you cum in your dream?”

Max moaned just thinking about it, and took a few seconds to try and steady herself.

“Do I ever, Mistress … ?”

_Fuck._

Victoria wasn’t prepared for her teasing to be returned so brutally honestly.

It was hot as fuck.

Her grasp tightened to the point she was sure her nails would leave marks, and the other hand’s attentions became even more furious for another few seconds.

Max had no choice but to moan and groan relentlessly as a result.

When the hand had slowed, Victoria resumed talking.

“Answer the question, _bitch._ ”

Max whined and squirmed, hesitating,

“I don’t remember … Mistress …”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully and considered whether this was a lie.

She decided that it was.

She mercilessly spanked at Max’s groin, but kept up her consistent approach of immediately mixing the pain with confusing amounts of pleasure.

Max cried out painfully and squirmed and flopped her head back so that it was pointing upwards.

It took her a few seconds and a harsh swallow before Max could manage a vocalization.

“Yes, Mistress …”

Victoria hummed cheerfully and removed positive contact with her lower hand.

It just went back to teasing mercilessly along Max’s inner thighs.

Before Max had time to complain, though, Victoria spoke, and her tone was inappropriately chipper.

“And did dream-me give you permission to cum? Or were you a bad girl?”

Max bit her lip with her teeth engaged enough to as to surely leave an impression and hesitated on a response.

Victoria knew how to get a response out of her bitch, though.

That teasing hand dug its nails into the skin of Max’s thigh, and carefully, slowly, agonizingly completed a journey upwards.

Then, without warning, it snapped downwards, and spanked harshly at Max’s groin again.

As always, it never left without a few seconds of righteously vigorous rubbing, to make the most out of excited, screaming nerve endings.

Max cried again, more broken this time, and melted uselessly against her Mistress’ front.

“No … she … she never does.”

Victoria found Max’s most sensitive spot and set about circling it with her finger.

The pressure wasn’t great, but she didn’t ever want Max to have an easy time speaking or answering questions.

“So you were a bad girl.”

Max swallowed again and moaned almost directly into Victoria’s face.

“I was a … bad girl.”

Victoria couldn’t really handle how attractive she found it when Max talked like that.

“You were a bad _bitch._ ”

Max breathed out harshly and repeated the moaning sound, gyrating her body again to try and get some more contact with Victoria’s hand.

“I was a bad _bitch_.”

She’d learned to lean on emphasizing the word in exactly the way Victoria did.

But Victoria inexplicably and immorally removed her lower hand from any contact whatsoever.

Max immediately started to pathetically whine and squirm about even more.

“So then. You’ve already had your fun. No need to give you anymore.”

Max’s protests and whines and gyrations were mostly for show, though.

Victoria knew this is what she wanted to feel.

She wanted to feel Victoria playing with her increasingly more aggressively, building up to something with the odd mix of pain and pleasure they had worked to balance out.

She wanted to be teased the entire way up.

And then she wanted to be let down, coldly, cruelly, without any chance to recover as she fell.

 

“Please …”

Max’s squirming started to calm down just a little bit.

Victoria kept her hand away, for now.

 

“Please …”

She calmed herself down even more.

But not to Victoria’s liking.

 

“Please …”

Finally, her breathing was a bit more stabilized, and she wasn’t attempting to sneak more satisfaction out of Victoria’s hands by her movements.

Victoria’s hand returned in righteous contact, and spared little effort this time.

Victoria’s other, less useful hand tightened up again.

She wanted to feel every little rise and fall of Max’s chest and belly as she started to get excited, again.

This time, her lower, more useful hand wasn’t going to stop to coyly pull away and tease at Max’s inner-thigh.

And despite the routine and pattern being an established part of their plays, it never failed to get these wonderfully erotic moans out of Max, nor did it ever fail to break her breathing down into pathetic panting.

 

After a little while, Victoria could tell her girlfriend was getting close to orgasm.

“Mmmmm, you sound like you’re getting ready to cum. I don’t think I told you you could, yet.”

Max whined pathetically in response, but vocalizations were especially hard for her by now.

That was, of course, the point, of delaying this begging for so long.

“Puh-please … Mistresssssss … can I … ---“

Victoria just shook her head.

“No.”

Max whined uselessly again, and in response, all Victoria did was pick up the pace and force behind her rubbing.

This was unfair on several levels, but Max liked feeling like she was being set up to fail cruelly like this.

“It doesn’t sound like you’re going to last much longer. I would hurry up in convincing me if I were you.”

Max squirmed around for a few seconds and swallowed harshly again.

“Please … Please! … I can’t … I can’t take it …”

Victoria just shook her head.

“No.”

Her tone was chipper, again.

Max’s whining almost sounded pained, now.

It didn’t help that Victoria’s lower hand at no point slowed down or softened its attentions.

In fact, the price of a failed beg was always that it would get faster and more cruel.

Max thrusted her hips forwards, unconsciously or not, and had to swallow yet again just to get any semblance of control over her voice.

“Please … pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease … ‘m desperate …”

Victoria hummed curiously.

“What was that?”

Max emitted a pained moan,

“I’m desperate! I need to cum!”

Out of everything, Victoria took the most satisfaction in how she corrupted Max’s sensibilities on vulgarity like this.

Maybe satisfaction wasn’t the right word.

It was the most arousing fucking thing she could think of.

“Alright. You may.”

Max opened her mouth and some kind of whining hum came out, but it quickly pitched up and up and up until only dogs could hear it.

And then her voice choked off entirely, to the point where Victoria didn’t even hear her breathing.

Eventually, Max slumped even more, and Victoria could her hear heavy, labored breathing once more.

Victoria’s lower hand only lingered for a few moments afterwards to squeeze out a few more enjoyable sounds – and one more pained cry with another surprise smack.

Then both of the hands loosened up significantly.

Max quietly pushed herself forward in the slack and turned around.

She nestled her face into Victoria’s neck and breathed harshly against it.

Victoria shivered without meaning to.

Max’s hand freed themselves from the nothing that was keeping them to her back, and they found Victoria’s own to entangle themselves with.

They did this for a few precious moments before Max tightly wrapped them around Victoria’s back and hugged her aggressively.

Victoria imitated this movement and sighed contently into the lump of brown hair nestled into her front.

This was nice, too.

 

It was much later when Max’s grip loosened and her breathing was more stabilized.

She peeled herself away from the crook of Victoria’s neck and kissed her way up.

Max kissed Victoria quite forcefully on the lips a few quick times, then raised up a bit higher to bite at the tip of her nose.

Victoria made a short yipping noise and shook her head.

Max giggled and collapsed against the bed to just look at her girlfriend.

But.

Max had a thought.

It was a thought she would have from time to time.

And it made her frown.

Victoria pursed her own lips.

She could see the frown, if not the gears in Max’s head that was causing it.

“What?”

Max shook her head, or as much as she could when laying on the bed.

“What about you?”

Victoria exhaled, amused.

“What about me?”

Max whined, again, though this one was decisively less erotic than earlier, and she raised one of her hands up to stroke along Victoria’s cheek.

“I want to be able to say I can get you off, too …”

Victoria enjoyed Max’s attention to her cheek and just closed her eyes, sighing peacefully.

“And you do. Just … obliquely.”

Max repeated the whining sound.

“I don’t even ever see you naked … like now, you’ve got this …”

Her other hand that wasn’t on Victoria’s cheek plucked at the fabric of Victoria’s dainty, floral nightgown.

“ … on … “

Victoria just scoffed.

“No one sees me naked.”

Max was quiet for a second or two.

“Who else would see you naked but me?”

Victoria opened her mouth to say something, but then realized she didn’t have a response for that.

She carefully opened her eyes again to see Max looking down, away from her face.

Victoria hesitated.

Being naked was … special to Victoria.

Her appearance was important to her, and a large part of that was her clothes.

Even if was just a night gown.

But even that didn’t fully explain it.

Victoria couldn’t shake the feeling deep down inside of her, that Max wouldn’t be attracted to her when naked.

But she didn’t know how to articulate this without sounding like the insecure idiot she was.

Victoria eventually leaned forward and gently bit at Max’s noise.

Max looked back up.

“It means that much to you?”

Max closed her eyes and sighed against Victoria’s face.

“I don’t know, it’s just … weird.”

Max opened her eyes, again.

She looked down, and up, and down, then back up.

“I don’t want to pressure you, or anything. I just feel like this is one of the last pretenses you’re holding onto around me.”

Victoria closed eyes and slumped against the bed.

It _was_ kind of one of the last pretenses Victoria kept up around Max.

Perhaps the most important, yet idiotically worrying one.

Max then wormed herself free of Victoria’s arms and sat on the edge of the bed.

Victoria opened her eyes and looked to her.

“Well. If _I_ don’t get to fuck _my_ girlfriend, _I’m_ going to get something to eat.”

Victoria enjoyed the little vulgarities of this private version of Max only she was privy to.

Even the way she over-enunciated everything sounded like an intentional imitation of the way Victoria spoke.

“Okay. Get me a granola bar.”

Max got up off the bed and walked to Victoria’s closet to pick out some clothes.

They weren’t the same size, but Victoria had some in Max’s size in her closet for just such an occasion.

And she made particular effort to carefully curate this collection, so that no matter what Max picked out, she wouldn’t look like a total idiot in public.

Max finished getting dressed – without underwear, as was tradition on weekends – and walked to the door.

“Hey, Max, sweetie …?”

Max stopped at the door and looked back, blinking.

“Huhwha?”

Victoria rolled over on the bed to look at her better.

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

Max smiled at this, looked down to the floor, then back up to Victoria.

“Okay. Luvubye.”

Victoria waved lazily,

“Luvubye.”

Then Max was gone.

Victoria was alone with her thoughts.

And her stupid fucking insecurities.

She sat up, on the edge of the bed, and just looked down to her night gown.

Would Max still like her if she wasn’t pretty?

If she was fat, or unattractive without this?

Would anyone?

Could anyone?

 

\---

 

Max and Victoria sat down together outside.

Max was leaning over with her head on Victoria’s shoulder, clinging unhelpfully to her arm, while they reviewed pictures they both took together.

They were setting at a table.

After Victoria revealed her relationship with Max to the Vortex Club, it took a little while longer for her to be totally comfortable with Max on her arm in public.

Max didn’t mind, for the most part, since she knew how important Victoria’s reputation was to her.

But they were past that point now, and the party that introduced Max and Victoria’s relationship to the Vortex Club was weeks ago.

“What about this one?”

Max hummed softly, thoughtfully.

“I don’t know. I like the framing but not the lighting. I think Mr. Jefferson would ding you for it.”

Victoria sighed, putting the last of the photos she’d picked out into the rejected pile.

She sat up straight and looked up to the sky.

“I’m never going to get a good enough photo for this freaking project.”

She would have crossed her arms to pout, too, but Max was on one of them, which made that quite difficult to do.

Not that she was complaining.

Max just sighed, pointedly exhaling into Victoria’s neck – which made her squirm just a little bit – and moved one of her hands to pat at Victoria’s belly.

Victoria allowed it for a few seconds, but soon moved one of her own hands to entangle with that hand and keep it from patting.

She slowly looked back down with her own sigh.

“Well, you pick any one of those, and you got a solid B+, A-.”

Victoria just huffed.

“That’s not good enough. It has to be _perfect._ ”

Max frowned at this, though, not that Victoria could see it.

All of Max’s projects to Jefferson’s class certainly weren’t A+ material.

And it was hard for Max to fully understand why Victoria wrangled so much life out of herself to meet that ridiculous standard.

But they were both ejected from their thoughts as Chloe sat down on the opposite side of the table, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

Maybe they were just especially distracted.

Still, Max sat up straight, fully detaching herself from Victoria.

“Oh, hi Chloe.”

Victoria grunted.

Max elbowed her.

“Hi. Chloe.”

She still crossed her arms, though, and tried to puff out her chest.

Chloe spared Victoria a few seconds of looking with a frown, but looked to Max soon enough and smiled again.

She still did this odd switching between frowning and smiling and Max was pretty sure at this point it wasn’t intentional.

“Rach wants to hit up a movie next Friday. She wanted me to invite you.”

Max and Chloe’s relationship was still a little tense.

Chloe had never fully forgiven her for the time they spent separated.

Max was pretty sure if Rachel wasn’t involved she wouldn’t even talk to her.

Max emitted a flat humming sound.

“Oh, jeez, I don’t _know_.”

She looked to Victoria.

“Do we have …?”

Victoria looked sidelong to her, and pursed her lips.

Chloe cleared her throat.

“What, she doesn’t have you on a … **_leash_** … or anything, does she?”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

Max giggled quietly, even though she really ought not to encourage Chloe teasing her like that.

Max then just breathed in and exhaled pleasantly.

“No, Chloe, just _my_ _girlfriend_ has priority over my _friends_.”

Chloe frowned and pouted obviously while Max looked back to Victoria.

Victoria just shrugged.

“ _I_ don’t remember planning _anything_.”

Max nodded and looked forward to Chloe again.

“I _think_ then, we _could_ go out together, Chloe. Let Rachel know I’m down.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of them.

It was kind of fucking weird to hear Max talk like that while wearing clothes Victoria obviously picked out for her and seeing them so close to another like that.

“Yeah, okay, awesome, killer.”

Chloe smacked her hands down on the table, accidentally spilling some of the piles of photos, and stood up.

She put her hands in her pockets and started to walk away.

She could hear Victoria’s inconsolable grumbling for miles.

 

This whole thing was just … weird.

If someone twisted her arm and asked her to pick out who Max might end up with, out of anyone in Blackwell Academy, her absolute last choice would be Victoria.

And not just because Victoria was a woman and Chloe was pretty sure Max didn’t swing that way when they were kids.

Yet, there they were, being as happy as Victoria was physically capable of being without exploding or something.

Chloe really just couldn’t square the Max she used to know with this one.

She couldn’t square the story of how they met, she couldn’t square Max having sex in public, she couldn’t square any of it.

It left her with the odd feeling that maybe she never really knew Max all that well to begin with.

Or the person she did know was gone, now.

That was a pretty disquieting feeling.

So Chloe kept her distance.

When Rachel didn’t all-but demand she not, anyway.

But, still.

Maybe this movie thing was a good idea.

Maybe Max just put on airs around Victoria.

All of the Vortex Club assholes operated like that.

_Wow._

Chloe blinked, and shook her head.

Max was in the same social group as Nathan and Victoria. 

 _That_ took some getting used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that first scene is the longest consecutive scene I've written ...


	10. Insecurity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel is kinda annoyed.
> 
> Victoria can't find the damn remote.
> 
> Max relishes a sight she hasn't seen.
> 
> Victoria almost cries.
> 
> But Max is here, this time.

Max exhaled contently after she splashed some water on her face.

Rachel came into the bathroom and sat on the sink next to her.

“Hey-hey-hey.”

Every ‘hey’ was said with a different pitch, sing-song.

Max blinked, but smiled and looked to her.

“Oh, Hi Rachel. How are you?”

Rachel smiled pleasantly and idly kicked her feet back and forth.

“I’m wonderful, thanks. Chloe told me you’re down for Friday. Are you going to use Victoria’s car or do you need us to pick you up?”

Max frowned out of confusion.

“ _I_ wouldn’t just take Victoria’s car away from her. If I _was_ to use _her_ car she’d be driving _us_ somewhere, _together_.”

Rachel looked confused, too.

“Uhm. Yeah. She would be. That’s what a double date usually implies.”

Max blinked.

“Double date? Chloe just invited me? Only me?”

Rachel opened her mouth, but nothing came out for a little while.

“Ugh. God damn it Chloe.”

Rachel scooted off the sink and crossed her arms.

“Well. I _intended_ for it to be a double date. I know Vic would want _nothing more_ than to spend time with me and Chloe, but I didn’t want to be imposing on your time.”

Max looked forward to the mirror above the sink and sighed.

Of course Chloe didn’t invite Victoria.

Just the mere idea of being slightly polite to her might make Chloe combust, or something.

“Well, that changes things.”

Max pushed herself off of the sink and sat up straight, crossing her own arms.

“I _guess_ I can see if Victoria would be up for a movie. I don’t …”

Max frowned, slightly,

“I don’t _know_ if I’d want the two of them in the same room for _too_ long, though.”

Rachel just smiled pleasantly.

“Oh shush. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Max bit her lip.

\---

Victoria woke up, suddenly.

She was sitting on her couch.

Max was right beside her, nestled into her side.

Victoria frowned and tried to remember what happened.

The fact that they had fallen asleep like this and the fact that it felt so early in the morning told her they’d been drinking.

Especially since a lot of the details of last night weren’t coming to her.

The TV had long since finished playing whatever they were watching.

Just some kind of boring infomercial, now.

With a sigh, she reached around carefully to try and find the remote.

Of course, she couldn’t find it.

That would have been too easy.

Victoria kept her frown as she looked around.

She didn’t see it anywhere.

She looked to Max.

Max’s hair was all deshelved and she was half-naked.

Victoria didn’t _feel_ like they did anything like that last night.

Not remembering things was fucking annoying.

Victoria looked back forward to the TV and considered her options.

She could go back to sleep, maybe.

But Victoria knew she wasn’t going to go back to sleep on the couch.

She wasn’t some plebian college kid or something.

Well.

She had to wake Max up, then.

Victoria looked back to Max and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She shook her gently.

Max groaned and whined.

Victoria felt a little guilty for waking her up.

Eventually, she sat up, though it took her a good solid minute before she opened her eyes and stretched.

She then just blinked and tiredly looked over to Victoria.

“Umm… What time is it?”

Victoria shrugged, and patted herself down.

She was still pretty much dressed.

Her phone wasn’t on her, though.

Of course not.

“Dunno. I don’t remember where I put my phone.”

Max frowned at this and blinked a few more times.

She then closed her eyes and groaned.

She shifted off to the side, slightly, and reached to where she had been sitting.

Victoria blinked.

 _That’s_ where the remote went.

Max turned off the TV, and stood up.

Victoria did as well.

Max turned around and casually tossed the remote onto the couch.

Afterwards, Victoria closed the distance between the two and she kissed her girlfriend.

Max sighed contently into it, but soon opened her eyes and looked up to Victoria.

Victoria opened her eyes as well.

She made an inquisitive humming sound.

“Back to bed?”

Victoria started to nod, but then hesitated.

“In a bit. First, though …”

Victoria placed her hands on Max’s still-exposed sides and rode her hands up to Max’s shoulders, then all of the way down to her hands.

She interlocked their fingers together, kissed Max again, and brought their hands to Victoria’s sides.

But it was different, this time.

Victoria’s hands broke away from Max’s, and moved down to the hem of her shirt.

She locked her fingers underneath it, broke away from the kiss, and just stared at Max while she slowly lifted her own shirt up.

Max blinked, frozen in thought when she realized what was happening.

When the shirt was pulled above where her hands had been placed, she at least had the wherewithal to attach her hands to Victoria’s sides and gently trace patterns there with her nails.

“I thought you …”

Max eventually managed a vocalization, but couldn’t complete it.

Victoria nodded again, slowly.

She was still dreading on lifting the shirt up much higher.

“I’m too tired and hungover to care.”

Victoria wasn’t sure if it was a lie or not.

Maybe it was just her own rationalization.

Maybe it didn’t matter what the actual reason was.

Why now, all of times, she decided to do what she had almost never done before.

With a heavy sigh, she just closed her eyes and hiked the shirt up further.

Eventually, it was completely off of her chest, and she was peeling it off of her arms and tossing it onto the couch behind them.

Max immediately – thoughtlessly – kissed Victoria when she completed the action.

It caught Victoria by surprise, and she vocalized a soft grunt.

But Max was so soft and warm right now, and her hands started to roam all along the newly exposed skin on Victoria’s body.

Victoria wanted to –

Max preempted what she knew was coming and pushed herself up against her girlfriend’s front.

Victoria didn’t have the space to defensively cross her arms, anymore.

This almost annoyed Victoria, but then she caught on to what Max was doing, and just sighed contently.

After Max broke away from the kiss, Max exhaled with a pointed amount of force at Victoria’s face.

She opened her eyes to look down at Max, who was smiling oh-so-very-wide.

Victoria smiled too, for a few moments.

Max’s hands circled around to Victoria’s back, and slowly rose to the back of her bra.

They stopped whence they reached it.

Victoria squirmed for a few moments and opened her mouth to say something.

But nothing really came out.

There never was a logical excuse as to why she had to be clothed.

It just …

It felt safe.

“Max.”

Victoria eventually managed a soft-gasping word and her breathing became a bit quicker.

“I won’t take it off if you don’t want me to …”

It was oddly reassuring to hear this, even if Victoria already knew perfectly well Max wouldn’t try to make Victoria uncomfortable in anyway.

“I just …”

Victoria closed her eyes and exhaled again, unevenly.

Her voice pitched up before it died off and she squirmed around anxiously for a few moments.

She opened her eyes.

Max was waiting patiently, of course, though her face was slightly troubled.

Probably out of concern from Victoria’s behavior.

Victoria didn’t finish the thought, even if it was screaming at max volume inside of her mind.

Max pursed her lips, and moved her face even closer to Victoria, as if she were to kiss.

But instead, she just moved past that, to Victoria’s ear, and exhaled pleasantly into it.

It was a little more awkward with the height difference than when Victoria did this, but still.

“Just what? You can tell me anything …”

Victoria already knew she could and that’s just what was making this so damn hard and she –

Max lowered her hands and tightly hugged Victoria.

Victoria’s mind wanted to race, but it was difficult to when Max was being so kind, so warm, so comforting.

Instead, she just closed her eyes again and slowly calmed down.

Quiet.

When her voice came out next, it was probably the softest it had ever been.

Max was probably the only one to have ever heard it like this.

With no pretenses.

“I’m just … so scared. No matter how hard I try my body is never perfect – I can run for miles and miles and I’m still fat and my boobs have never been big enough and I just --- I just --- what if --- what if you don’t like it? What if you don’t like me? What if ---“

It all felt so lame and embarrassing to come out.

Max exhaled into her ear again.

Victoria braced for Max to reject her, or laugh, or make fun of her, or something.

Max waited until she was certain Victoria was done, and kissed her way over to Victoria’s lips.

They shared another brief, gentle kiss.

Max bit down on Victoria’s bottom lip and tugged at it playfully.

Victoria squeaked.

Max giggled tiredly and released the lip.

Victoria blinked her eyes open, and Max was smiling again.

“I don’t think it’s possible for me to be gayer for you than I already am. You could have no boobs and all and I’d still be attracted to them – because they’d be on _you._ ”

Victoria closed her eyes and exhaled unevenly.

She was also blushing, and not slightly, either.

Of course, Max was so impossibly accommodating.

She always was so nice.

Even to people who never deserved it.

Quiet.

Victoria nodded, gently.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. You can um… go on.”

Max kissed her again, and it was a little more forceful, this time.

It was wonderfully distracting, though.

Max’s hands rode up along Victoria’s back, again.

They moved at an agonizingly slow pace.

It felt like it took them an hour before they were back at the back of Victoria’s bra.

They hesitated again when they reached it and grasped it.

Max paused the making out and made an inquisitive humming sound.

Victoria just nodded and resumed making out with her girlfriend.

Just like that, the bra was undone.

Max moved her hands up higher, and slowly tugged the shoulder straps down.

Victoria still hadn’t been doing much with her hands, so Max was able to pull her bra off entirely without too much more effort.

Max pulled her front back just enough to give it the space to fall between them, and kicked away when it landed.

And Victoria felt wrong –

She felt exposed –

Max only had to open her eyes and look down –

She would see –

This would end –

It would –

Max stopped and pulled away, suddenly.

She took a step or two back.

Victoria froze, but her head slowly looked down and away.

She didn’t want to see Max’s face when she realized what a mistake this was.

Quiet.

Max giggled.

Victoria blinked, and carefully raised her head back up.

She blinked her eyes open, and Max just had this adorably dorky grin plastered onto her face.

Her eyes were half-lidded, like she was high, or something.

She was blushing, and giggled again when Victoria met gaze.

She then cleared her throat.

“Um. Sorry. Just. _Wowzer_ , Victoria. Your boobs are amazing.”

Victoria’s blush deepened and she looked down and she exhaled, amused, because what kind of fucking dork says _wowzer_ but –

Max closed the distance and carefully found Victoria’s hands.

She entangled their fingers.

Max briefly kissed at Victoria’s neck, and then dragged her over to the bed.

Victoria didn’t resist.

They didn’t need any more words, right now.

They laid down on it, and once again pushed their fronts to be flush with one another.

Their hands played with each other’s sides in a similar manner, nails involved, with finger patterns ranging from masochistically exciting to just calmly reassuring.

They made out.

And their kissing was immaculate, again.

Reassuring.

Victoria still wasn’t able to fully convince herself that Max didn’t find her half-naked body repulsive, but.

It was getting easier to believe with every passing second.

Eventually, Victoria pulled away from all of the affections.

Not too much, but enough to give her some space.

She hooked a few fingers along the top of her skirt and hesitated longer still.

Max frowned, at first, but then her eyes flicked up and down and she realized why Victoria had moved away.

Then she just blushed even more deeply and giggled again.

She looked back up to Victoria and smiled warmly.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I won’t …”

Max hesitated, then shook her head.

“I want you to be as comfortable as you can be.”

Victoria nodded, carefully.

Her hands went behind her back and she unhooked her skirt.

The movement was agonized and drawn-out, but she eventually moved it downwards and away from her body.

“I don’t … “

Victoria huffed, and closed her eyes as she kicked the skirt off and away.

That left only her panties.

The fact that she was almost completely naked was constantly cycling though Victoria’s brain.

“I don’t _want_ to be so pathetic about this, Max.”

This, she knew, was the truth, at least.

Victoria hated how self-conscious she was about her own body.

About her own grades.

About her work.

About her relationships.

It just felt inescapable, before.

Max went quiet, carefully considering Victoria’s words.

Victoria’s hands raised up to her own belly again, and then slowly moved down to the last remaining piece of clothing she had.

But she hesitated, and frowned.

“It was just … so easy, before. You having a fetish for being fucked by someone clothed while you were naked was … convenient, to say the least.”

Max frowned too, for a second or two, but went back to gently smiling after a little while.

Victoria knew that Max’s kinks worked nicely with her own, but she never fully appreciated how much Max’s kinks also complimented Victoria’s insecurities.

“I could just put it off. It wasn’t me being pathetically miserable or insecure – it was me being a good girlfriend. A good mistress. It was … _ugh_.”

Victoria’s fingers hooked into the top line of her panties, and she started to pull them down and away.

She was surprised, now, how easily they came off, and how quickly she took to kicking them away.

Max mindlessly stripped off what remained of her bottom to reciprocate.

She remained quiet.

But it was official, now.

Victoria was officially naked.

She’d been naked in front of other people before, of course.

Around other people who cared less.

Who didn’t assuage her insecurities or affirm who she was as a person.

Maybe that’s why it got as bad as it did.

Victoria suddenly didn’t want to think about it, anymore, and shook her head with a harsh exhale.

“But I’ve been thinking about you … eating me out … for months.”

Max giggled nervously.

Victoria inched closer, again, and hugged Max’s body flush against hers once more.

She then guided one of Max’s hands to her own groin.

Max was a bit more than just eager to start rubbing.

Victoria closed her eyes, and slid her hands to Max’s back.

Her nails started making random patterns, digging in, rubbing, or just tracing.

Victoria focused on the feeling of her girlfriend finally returning some of the pleasure she’d been so selfishly hogging all of this time.

“And I don’t want to just think about it, anymore… I want to be able to lash you to the bed and force you to give me thousands and thousands of orgasms, until I can barely _fucking_ move.”

Max repeated that nervous giggling sound, only it was higher-pitched, now, and more uneven.

“And then the next day, I want the whole _fucking_ school to know how amazing my girlfriend is.”

Max had enough.

She kissed Victoria right on the lips, quite forcefully even, and started to rub with an emphatic amount of force.

Her second hand even came forward to assist in teasing a spot so much more sensitive, a bit higher.

It was finally Victoria’s turn to moan into one of these kisses.

She never really wanted to moan, around Max.

She never wanted to show any kind of vulnerability, like that.

She never wanted to show she was anything other than totally dominant.

Totally in control.

Totally in charge.

With everything planned out meticulously for weeks in advance.

The illusion just couldn’t be broken.

Max wouldn’t like her anymore if she knew all the effort that went into maintaining that façade.

 

But Max responded in a way Victoria didn’t expect her to.

Max squirmed around and broke her lips away just long enough to return a sound of satisfaction.

Not quite a moan, but.

It still meant she _liked_ hearing that sound of Victoria.

Max’s finger assaulting Victoria’s more sensitive spot became devious and for a short while were viciously sharp and furious in their assault.

Though this would have been quite enough on its own, Max’s lower hand then spanked immediately afterwards at Victoria’s groin.

This broke Victoria’s breathing and she exhaled another shaky moan.

She tightly closed her eyes, and her body started to sway from the severity of her breathing.

That was one of her own moves.

Max was learning all of the little cruel ways Victoria teased her.

The little devil.

Still, just the thought made Victoria smile – as much as she could given the circumstance, anyway.

Max was trying her hardest.

She liked those sounds.

She knew what Victoria liked.

She’d been paying particular attention and was trying oh-so-diligently to make this experience as satisfying as it could, to Victoria.

Victoria was wrong.

And she never liked being wrong so much before in her life.

When Max slapped her groin again, Victoria exhaled sharply, and briefly bit at Max’s nose.

“Mmmm… Max. _Fuck._ You have no --- I just …”

Max’s attentions paused briefly, and she hummed a wordless question.

Victoria just shook her head.

“I love you so _fucking_ much right now.”

There was that nervous giggling sound again.

When Victoria managed to pry her eyes open, Max was beaming at her with so obvious, unbidden affection.

Victoria’s breathing hitched, but it couldn’t remain as such for very long.

Since she’d lost her breath a while ago.

Max closed the distance between their lips again, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed.

She’d pull away only a few inches to go right back into kissing again.

Victoria lost track of how many kisses Max gave her.

She could just focus on the feeling of so much affection while Max’s hands started to pick up their attentions, again.

She could slowly start to lose herself, again.

Only when Max was finished with doting a thousand one kisses did she speak.

“I love you so _fucking_ much too, Victoria.”

The vulgarity –

The way Max’s fingers emphasized the words –

The affection she could hear in every word –

How comforting Max had been this entire time - 

_Fuck._

“ _Max_.”

Victoria moaned it out – loudly – and she didn’t give a fuck who on the floor heard it.

She almost had the time to feel pathetic for getting so excited so easily –

But after she moaned the word, Max’s attention changed up.

She switched to one of the other techniques Victoria had used on her.

And just began to rub as viciously, as quickly, as aggressively as she could, in a simple back-and-forth motion.

And it was just too fucking much, too fucking fast.

Victoria was _not_ quiet when she got close to orgasm, unlike Max.

Her voice did pitch up higher – and her breathing did stall – and her body seized up and flexed – and her brain just stopped fucking working for a few seconds –

But then Victoria emitted what was the loudest, most erotic moan she ever remembered making, and collapsed onto the bed, exhausted.

She should have felt pathetic.

She didn’t last very long, at all.

Since it’d been so long since she’d masturbated, or something.

But her breathing was heavy and her mind wasn’t operating to efficiently right now.

She didn’t get to spiral too deeply into it before Max was kissing her again.

Between the warmth of Max’s soft lips and the constant influx of satisfying sensations from her slowed hands, her mind was forced into thinking more positively.

 

For a little while, at least.

Perhaps a minute, perhaps two, perhaps ten later, Victoria sighed wearily.

Max’s hands had long since left her groin and just played gently along her back.

She just repeated the questioning hum, since they’d already long melted into the bed and neither had their eyes open.

“I don’t get it, Max …”

Quiet.

She could feel Max’s stare heavy on her, even with her eyes closed, so with another sigh, she opened them.

Max’s face was drowning in concern.

Victoria shook her head.

“A-any of this. I failed. I’m not a perfect … fucking … anything. I can’t even stay dominant around you – which is like – _fuck_ – it should be – “

Max silenced her protests and spiraling with another kiss.

This was probably the most forceful one of the night, and left them both a little breathless.

Victoria’s lips even felt a little fuzzy, like they’d been pressed so hard that they were deprived of oxygen, or something.

Max then exhaled a pointed amount of force onto Victoria’s face.

“I’ve never been attracted to you because of perfection, Victoria.”

Victoria frowned.

She _was_ perfection.

Was else was there to be attracted to?

Max shook her head.

“I mean … initially … a lot of it was because of how pretty you were but – “

Max exhaled wearily and closed her eyes.

“Then you um … how would you say it … ? _Fucked my brains out?_ ”

Victoria sputtered an inelegant laugh, and Max giggled with her.

Max continued.

“And afterwards, when I felt like shit … you were there. You didn’t let me feel like shit. I had no choice but to feel happy and comforted.”

Max unsubtly tightened her arms around Victoria in a firm hug.

Victoria just closed her eyes and considered Max’s words.

“A-and then … we had all of this stuff in common and –“

Max breathed in deep and exhaled just as deeply.

“At some point I woke up and realized just how much you meant to me. So … yeah. I don’t care if you’re not perfect. I don’t want a perfect version of Victoria. I just want … you.”

Victoria blushed, again, and continued to consider Max’s words.

Max squeezed her even more, to the point that it got a squeak out Victoria.

Then she softened it, and just returned her hands to making gentle patterns on Victoria’s back.

“I like the Victoria that blushes a little bit whenever she says ‘girlfriend’. I like the Victoria that is a huge nerd for anime movies. I like the Victoria that can effortlessly switch between cruelly denying me after I beg and kissing me in the most romantic way possible. And yeah … I even like the Victoria that is still self-conscious about her body.”

Victoria blushed some more, and moved her face forward until it collided with Max’s in another forceful kiss.

Victoria spoke after they broke away.

“Okay, okay, jeez, I get it.”

Victoria inhaled deeply, as deeply as she ever had, and let the breath out so slowly.

What Max had said was the cheesiest fucking thing she’d ever heard in her life.

But she kind of needed to hear it, right now.

But then she had a thought, and smirked, softly.

“How long have you been practicing that one, Caulfield?”

Max giggled again – and her giggles were such endearing little things – and just shrugged.

“Couple hundred times, maybe. I just – it just had to go right, you know? I couldn’t mess that up.”

Victoria blinked.

Max didn’t sound like she was joking.

Max then realized Victoria was at least a little disbelieving, and hesitated.

“I wanted to make you feel as good as I did when I was down and you comforted me.”

She hesitated some more, then smiled toothily.

“Did it work?”

Victoria scoffed and exhaled, amused.

She gave one more quick kiss to Max.

“Yes, Max. It did. … Thanks.”

Victoria wasn’t too good at the whole being-emotionally-vulnerable thing.

But the little smile they shared spoke louder than any words Victoria could have strung together, anyway.

 

Quiet.

It was nice.

But then, randomly,

“So um … who I can tell about this?”

Victoria sputtered inconsolably and rolled her eyes.

“Ugh. I demand it to be someone who is mortified just thinking about us fucking like rabbits. I want to relish the look on their face.”

They both thought on it, simultaneously.

They didn’t really have to think very long, actually.

Maybe a few seconds.

They spoke in unison.

“Chloe.”

They both giggled like small schoolgirls.

Victoria had done the impossible, and corrupted an innocent little hipster into relishing her vulgarity and sexuality.

But.

Max had done the impossible too, and made Victoria comfortable enough with one of her relationships to even want to share it in such a way.

It was nice.


	11. Motivation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria smiles.
> 
> Rachel moans.
> 
> Chloe pouts like a kid.
> 
> Chloe gains some motivation.

Victoria was eating lunch with Taylor outside under some tree somewhere.

Normally, Max would be here too, but she had other preoccupations today.

Taylor carefully bit into some of her sandwich and started to chew.

Victoria just stared miserably at her salad.

It was pretty obvious to Taylor that something was wrong, and also pretty obvious that Victoria wasn’t going to bring it up without being pushed a little bit.

Because this was Victoria, after all.

She swallowed.

“You look like death.”

Victoria scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Thanks bitch, I’ll remember that.”

Taylor smiled pleasantly.

“Seriously though, what’s wrong? Something with Max?”

Victoria laughed gently and shook her head barely.

“No, I …”

Taylor watched Victoria change right in front of her eyes, becoming softer, and even smiling a little bit.

“Max is perfect. No. It’s nothing with her.”

Even the way she spoke was so … not her. Not smug or self-satisfied, just content.

It always made Taylor smile to see how Victoria acted when she was thinking about Max.

But …

If it wasn’t her?

“Then what is it?”

Taylor shifted forward a bit, and took another bite of her sandwich.

The old Victoria was back when the subject changed, with the little smile on her face dying to be replaced by routine uncaring coldness.

“Chloe and Rachel. They want a double date and …”

She frowned.

“I can’t think of anything worse than to be locked in a room with Rachel for an hour or so.”

Taylor sighed and finished chewing this bite with a harsh swallow.

“You really need to get over this Rachel hate-boner.”

Victoria’s frown deepened.

“No. I really don’t.”

Taylor sighed again.

“Yes. You do. You’re going to hurt someone eventually over this. Did you tell Max no? You won’t do the double date?”

Victoria groaned.

“No, I … I said yes. Chloe means something to Max. A double date is a good way to get them talking again.”

Taylor hummed.

“Even if Chloe hates the shit out of you, and you hate the shit out of Rachel.”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“Something like that. I’m pretty sure this is going to be a disaster.”

Taylor smiled and took another bite.

“As though you being a gay disaster is news.”

Victoria groaned, but was smiling gently when she playfully shoved Taylor.

“Oh shut up, you bitch.”

Taylor just smiled, smiled, smiled.

“Well. Chloe can’t be that bad. Especially around Rachel?”

Victoria frowned again.

“She replaced my shampoo with hair dye once.”

Taylor shrugged. Another bite.

“Yeah well, you looked really cute with pink hair.”

Victoria groaned painfully, and raised a hand up to rub at her temples.

“That’s _not_ helping.”

Taylor giggled and put her sandwich down.

She inched over a little bit to place a hand on Victoria’s shoulder and rubbed gently.

Victoria pretty much never allowed anyone to touch her, but she was getting better about it after starting to date Max.

And watching Victoria close her eyes, slowly lower her hand, and recross her arms, with some of the stress melted away, was very satisfying.

“Look. I’m not saying it’s going to be _easy_. Just … try. I’m sure she will too. Try not to hate Rachel. Chloe will try not to hate you. Maybe we get fireworks, but …”

She smiled.

“Maybe you all will have a magical night.”

Victoria took a few moments to consider, and spoke gently when she did next.

“I … so don’t believe that.”

Taylor chuckled quietly, patted at Victoria’s shoulder, and inched back to resume eating her sandwich.

“Yeah you do.”

Victoria sighed deeply, wearily, and brought her salad up.

“Maybe I do.”

Taylor hesitated, for a second.

“Plus, just imagine how happy Max will be if you pull this off.”

Victoria hesitated herself, thinking about that.

“… and how good the oral will be later.”

Victoria sputtered an inelegant laughing sound at Taylor’s words, brusquely shoving at Taylor’s shoulder again.

Taylor giggled herself.

They were both smiling.

 

\---

 

Rachel woke up to a wonderful sight.

Chloe sleeping right in front of her.

Chloe had been laying down on her back, and Rachel was sort of nestled into her side, with a hand resting gently on Chloe’s belly.

It wasn’t morning.

Chloe often crashed in her room, and Rachel often took a little nap after classes let out to recharge for all of the stuff she’d do in the afternoon.

Rachel smiled at her adorable girlfriend sleeping with her mouth open way too much.

She looked like a total idiot.

But she was _her_ idiot, so, whatever.

Rachel rubbed at her belly a little bit before snaking the hand underneath Chloe’s shirt to rub at skin more directly.

Chloe breathed in deeply and started to stir and wake up.

She then groaned loudly and stretched like a cat, arching her back – incidentally pushing her belly more into Rachel’s hand – and raising her arms way above her.

When she was done, she smacked her lips, and looked down to Rachel at her side.

They shared a smile, and a quick kiss.

“Hey, beautiful.”

Rachel smiled wider.

“Hey, dummy.”

Chloe scoffed and rolled her eyes, though she was smiling at Rachel’s playful tone.

“What, I compliment you and you insult me? I see how it is.”

Rachel hummed thoughtfully and placed a little kiss on her cheek.

“Yeah. Better get used to it, babe.”

One of the things Rachel appreciated most about Chloe is they both could resonate so strongly with being playful.

Like it was totally automatic for the both of them, and didn’t require any conscious effort.

Chloe chuckled gently, and leaned down and forward for another kiss, but this one was quiet and slow.

Rachel was all-too-happy to return it.

When they separated,

“Who says I’m complaining?”

It was Rachel’s turn to chuckle, and she carefully started to tease the hand at her belly up higher.

Not suggestively, but affectionately.

“Well … you _do_ complain a lot …”

Chloe nodded, barely.

“Well, there’s a lot _to_ complain about with you.”

Rachel scoffed and playfully patted a bit too firmly at whatever bit of skin her hand was in contact with, like the world’s laziest slap.

“Hey, I’m right _here_ , y’know.”

She didn’t take Chloe’s words very seriously, and she knew Chloe did the same with hers.

Chloe made a thoughtful sound, and placed a few gentle quick kisses all along one of Rachel’s cheeks.

“How can I forget …”

Rachel closed her eyes and just –

Melted.

Relaxed.

Into Chloe, into the bed, into whatever.

This was so fucking perfect.

 

Though …

There was that other thing they were doing, tonight.

That miiiiight be a little bit less than perfect.

Rachel bit her own lip, and considered whether or not to bring it up.

Max seemed really worried Chloe wouldn’t play nice, and while Rachel comforted Max on the matter, she wasn’t so confident herself underneath the bravado.

Victoria was basically impossible to get along with if you didn’t suck up to her – or fuck her, apparently – and Chloe did neither – so far as Rachel knew – and that made them natural enemies.

But this was kind of stupid to Rachel, since they were more similar than not.

They both had some awful self-esteem and family issues, and _needed_ the world to see them a certain way in order for their life to make any sense.

And while Victoria basically defined the word ‘bitch’, Chloe was equally difficult and quarrelsome when she wanted to be, which was always.

Not to Rachel, of course, but still.

And now this … gay mess with Max coming back into Chloe’s life … tied to Victoria.

Rachel knew not being good friends with Max was eating away at Chloe – especially from how doting and fawning she always to talk about her like.

But Max didn’t exist separate from Victoria, and it kept them distant, and that was just so stupid and childish and ugh.

Fuck.

This really needed to go right.

Rachel had to talk about it.

Ugh.

“Hey, so … about the date tonight.”

Chloe grunted.

Rachel bit her lip.

“Can you not bite Victoria’s head off?”

Chloe scoffed.

“No promises. You know I can’t stand her.”

Rachel sighed gently. Boy did she.

“Yeah, but … it’s for Max, though. Victoria is swallowing her pride for Max too, y’know.”

Chloe went quiet for a few seconds.

“I don’t even know what Max sees in her.”

Oh god. Was Rachel going to _defend_ Victoria just to make this disaster less inevitable?

“Oh come on, they have so much in common. Just … some people want you to see a very specific version of them. And some other people can see through that, sometimes, and know that there’s a person deep down that wants some help. Needs it, even.”

Yeah, that’s what was happening. Ugh. Fuck.

Chloe went quiet and hummed thoughtfully.

“You know, you’re actually _defending_ Victoria right now, right?”

Rachel giggled quietly.

“Should I go get some soap and wash my mouth out? It feels so dirty.”

Chloe just scoffed.

But Rachel’s words weren’t lies – she knew there was more to Victoria than meets the eye.

Just like she knew there was more to Chloe than the belligerent punk that got into fist fights.

Just like Chloe knew there was more to Rachel than the perfect goddess everyone saw.

Ugh, too deep a cut. Bail.

Rachel leaned up to get another kiss out of Chloe.

Good, distracting thoughts.

When she pulled away, though, Chloe pushed back into it and gently worked her tongue into Rachel’s mouth.

“Nah … think my tongue will do, though.”

Better, even _more_ distracting thoughts.

Rachel grinned wryly, or as much as she could while making out with her girlfriend, anyway.

The affection she was giving from her hands became more overtly sexual, rubbing down to Chloe’s butt and sneaking under her jeans to squeeze there.

Hard to with skinny jeans, but, whatever.

Rachel pulled away from the makeout session with her massive grin.

“Your tongue is so useful then … I wonder what else it can do?”

Chloe’s mouth had been gaping like the cute idiot she was, but she caught on pretty quickly and grinned right along with Rachel.

She kissed at her cheek, then lower at her neck, then lower at the edge of her t-shirt, by the collar.

Chloe turned her body onto its side so they were facing one another, instead of Rachel just being snuggled into her side, and she intertwined their legs and started to suggestively grind herself against her.

Rachel was more than happy to return such attentions with her eyes closed and a gentle hum.

“Why don’t we find out …”

Fuck.

Chloe accentuated this flirting by biting at Rachel’s neck, lifting with her teeth a little, and suckling the wound afterwards – a hickie.

 _Double_ fuck.

“Oh, Chloe …”

Rachel couldn’t help a gentle breathless moan from this, and Chloe knew that perfectly well, which is why she always did it, and why it always so fucking hot to hear Rachel moan her name like that.

“That’s my name … don’t wear it out.”

Even while Chloe was kissing lower, lower, lower, lower, she couldn’t help but still be so playful and casual.

And it was just the most amazing thing.

“Mmmm… I have a feeling you’re about to hear your name a lot.”

Another hickie, farther down, right above the top of her t-shirt’s collar.

Fuck.

Rachel brought one of her hands up to start gently petting and playing with Chloe’s hair, while the other hand moved off to lay plainly on the bed.

Chloe’s hands skittered up to the bottom of Rachel’s shirt – at first simply tracing their fingers along the skin just underneath the hem teasingly, before she started to hike it up at a carefully slow rate.

When her belly was exposed, Chloe kept lowering her head further.

Rachel closed her eyes when her belly received the warmest and most affectionate of brief kisses.

Chloe kept pushing the shirt up further, and Rachel begrudgingly removed her hand from Chloe’s hair to hike it off entirely.

It fell onto the floor somewhere, unimportant.

Rachel shifted to lay on her back instead of her side and Chloe followed her to lay atop her, wormed between her legs.

Chloe started to slowly kiss her way back up, and exhaled a warm breath onto both of Rachel’s breasts when she arrived there.

Her voice was so low and slightly labored from breathing, but still a little playful somehow.

“Hn. Have I ever told you how … beautiful your body is?”

Rachel smiled warmly at the affirmation, but also rolled her eyes slightly, also not losing her own playful edge.

“Mmmmnnn … only every time I take my shirt off.”

Chloe smiled, too. She groped one of the breasts gently while kissing at some exposed part of the other.

“It bears repeating.”

She exhaled sharply onto exposed skin again and Rachel really fucking liked the feeling of that combined with Chloe’s hands and lips just so lovingly doting affection onto her.

Rachel gripped at the bed sheets for a second or two when Chloe placed another kiss down onto some breast and then raised her hands up to work her bra off.

It too fell onto the floor somewhere, unimportant.

Chloe started to rather unsubtly grind her body against Rachel underneath her while her mouth’s attention turned from kissing to licking and went from whatever skin was exposed to directly a nipple.

Fuck.

Rachel’s hands found the bedsheets again, gripping gently while she kept her eyes closed and focused on the attention.

Chloe gently bit at the nipple she’d been licking.

Rachel breathed in harshly and grinded herself against Chloe’s body above her.

“Mmnnh … _fuck_ , Chloe.”

Somewhere between a moan and a voice totally without air to enunciate words with.

Hard not to be excited from Chloe’s attentions, though.

Chloe suddenly got herself a wry grin and firmly groped the other breast her tongue wasn’t giving attention to – once, twice –

“Honk honk. Just … wait a bit for the mnnnn-fucking, babe.”

Despite everything, Chloe fucking Price just honked her boobs like a 12 year old.

It put a dopey grin on Rachel’s face. Perhaps it should have ruined the mood, but it was just so … Chloe. So irreverent, so uncaring, yet also so loving and genuine and affectionate and ---

Ugh.

Chloe switched which breast was getting attention from hand and tongue and waited patiently until Rachel moaned her name again before she started to kiss lower and lower again.

Rachel started to unzip her jeans but Chloe’s hands cut her off and guided them away.

“Nnnnoo. This is mine to … play with.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, but was more than happy to let her girlfriend control the state of her jeans as her hands returned to Chloe’s hair after being rebuffed.

Chloe kissed at the just below Rachel’s belly and just above the buckle of the jeans.

Small, but precious space to work with.

She licked at a little bit of skin in this area before gently biting again – not a hickie, but a blood relative to one.

Rachel’s hands gripped Chloe’s head more tightly for a second or two in response, and she exhaled harshly again.

Chloe placed both of her hands down by Rachel’s knees and worked her hands up the insides of her thighs.

They moved so fucking slowly ugh.

But they were moving, and Rachel focused on that feeling.

They went up, up, up –

Up past her knees –

Past the lower part of her thighs –

Up to the upper part –

The hands slowed down even _more_ and started to apply a very firm amount of pressure as they continued their hiking –

 _Finally_ , they were right by her groin but –

They just teased going by, immorally with no satisfying attention, and snaked around to the top line of her jeans.

Ugh.

Chloe bit down again on some other bit nearby to the prior bite, a bit more bitingly.

Rachel’s hands raked through Chloe’s scalp.

She emitted a proper moan now, hot and needing.

She left her mouth gaping afterwards to ensure any further sounds that wanted to escape had no difficulties in doing so.

Despite all of the ceremony Chloe was putting into working her way down, once she heard that moan she had Rachel’s jeans down and off in pretty short order, and Rachel was of course all too happy to support and oblige her by kicking them completely off when able to.

Chloe playfully pulled up on Rachel’s panties for just a second or two before working them off just as quickly.

And suddenly her girlfriend was naked, right in front of her, just like that.

And no matter how many times she saw it –

No matter how many times Rachel told her to go ahead –

No matter –

Chloe bit her own lip and hesitated.

The doubts were there and they were always so stupid and always so illogical.

Heavy exhale.

Rachel unsubtly gyrated her groin a bit more towards Chloe’s face.

“Don’t … make me wait … all day …”

Fuck.

At least hearing Rachel breathless and _needy_ for her attentions was pretty quick to cut through the bullshit fog of self-doubt.

“Just a dramatic … pause, babe …”

Chloe closed her eyes and lowered her face down just that much more to close the immoral distance between her lips and her girlfriend’s groin.

“Oh … Chloe.”

And she was immediately rewarded with a tremendously satisfying rendition of her name, all heavy and heated and wanton and lustful and –

_Fuck._

Chloe mindlessly grinded her own thighs together and spent little time in working up her attentions.

Gentle and affectionate at first, but Rachel had enough of that crap.

No time or place left for kissing – Chloe was licking forcefully and empathically.

Not in any particular fashion or skill or manner or methodology – just.

Trying to work her girlfriend up even more.

And it didn’t take very long to do that.

Every lick, every second, every moan, every breath, she could feel Rachel’s body working up to something magical.

When Rachel’s hands dug into her scalp and didn’t let go with a particular harsh moan, Chloe switched up her attentions.

Her tongue focused exclusively on Rachel’s clit, and one of her hands came up to forcefully fuck her girlfriend.

“Chloe! Oh --- oh fuck! Uhn …”

 _Fuck_ indeed.

Chloe didn’t stop or slow down until Rachel’s hands finally released their death-grip on her head and gently stroked at her hair instead.

At this, she got a cheeky grin and rubbed her nose more into her girlfriend, to give her a smell she didn’t want dislodged for a while.

Not that her fingers wouldn’t carry it for some while, anyway.

Chloe slowly worked her way back up Rachel’s body with tons of little kisses.

She lingered on her belly, enjoying the feeling of her heavy breathing causing such a rapid rising and falling of her chest, but didn’t linger for too long.

She spared a nipple another quick little nibble, but soon enough she was back up at her girlfriend’s face, and her face was just so –

Happy.

Dopey, unguarded smile.

Obviously affectionate, beaming eyes.

An impossibly distracting amount of blush to her features.

This wasn’t playful amusement or a mask.

This was Rachel when she was most vulnerable, and Chloe knew it was a sight heavily guarded.

All the more reason to just continue looking at her girlfriend _like that_ for a few seconds too long, probably with her own massively stupid look on her own massively stupid face.

But that was okay.

Chloe could look as massively stupid as she wanted around Rachel.

She heard that Rachel had a thing for idiots like her.

“Chloe …”

Despite the nature of Chloe’s activities not a minute earlier, Rachel leaned forward to kiss her on the lips.

“Rachel …”

Tasting herself wasn’t the most amazing sensation in the world, but there was a certain unmeasurable satisfaction to kiss Chloe when she was so happy with herself like this.

Rachel caused this.

She made Chloe happy.

That was … such an awesome thought.

To think of where she was a few years ago …

No.

Rachel ended the short but emphatic and breath-stealing kiss to look at Chloe again.

She raised one of her hands up to stroke at Chloe’s cheek and the two of them smiled wider.

 

“So um am I … shoving you between my thighs now or … hhn what?”

 

Rachel giggled distantly and tiredly rolled her eyes around with another brief little kiss.

“Actually …”

Chloe blinked.

Rachel moved one of her hands down to forcefully grind against Chloe’s groin – through fabric of jeans – and Chloe was so into that with her body’s immediate and automatic counter-grinding –

“I was thinking …”

Chloe blinked again, and started to gape her mouth like the big idiot she was.

The rubbing hand moved up, and slowly started to worm its way into her jeans –

“That …”

Chloe blinked yet again, and again –

The hand snuck lower, lower –

“… I would save that … for when you … make Max happy … tonight.”

The hand suddenly immorally shot up and away to playfully pat Chloe on the cheek.

It was Rachel’s turn to grin like a massive playful idiot.

And she deeply enjoyed the naked expression of shock on Chloe’s face for the second or two it took her to realize Rachel was being serious.

Then, Chloe closed her eyes, looked up a bit, and pouted so obviously with a whine that wouldn’t be out-of-place coming out of a small child who had just been denied their favorite candy after being promised it for weeks.

“C’mon, Rachel … I’m so fucking … ugh. I need you.”

She looked back down and opened her eyes again.

Rachel giggled and wow was it awesome to hear that but –

She leaned forward to place yet another kiss on Chloe’s lips.

“And I’m going to … love hearing you … moan my name … tonight. _After_ things go well.”

Chloe huffed puffed and wanted to blow Rachel down, but.

She was her girlfriend, so she kinda couldn’t.

Instead, she just admitted defeat with a groan and lowered one of her hands to play with herself.

Rachel watched it for a second or two, but stole the hand to pop some of the fingers in her mouth and playfully suck on them, careful to ensure that Chloe was watching every second of it.

When this was done, she held the hand, lowered it, and intertwined the fingers, neverminding the mess this made.

“Don’t? Just … keep it as … _motivation_. Be a good girl. … then you can be my … _bad_ girl, _later_.”

Another whine, another pouting look, but …

Chloe didn’t have a bone in her body to resist Rachel with.

She initiated another kiss, and Rachel was all-too-happy to return it.

When they separated, Rachel lowered herself a little bit to nestle into the spot around Chloe’s neck and collarbones, so she could feel her eventually-calming breathing colliding against excited skin.

Chloe broke her hands away so that she could tightly hug Rachel in a warm embrace.

They both closed their eyes.

“Ok, but … it better be so fucking good …”

Rachel kissed at Chloe’s neck.

“I promise. This will be the … best night of your life.”

She breathed in deeply, and placed another kiss on her neck.

“Just don’t bite Victoria’s … head off.”

Chloe groaned painfully.

“ _Great_. Now you’re making me think of Vic. What a mood killer.”

Rachel smiled.

Perhaps that was intentional.

Chloe didn’t ask, and Rachel didn’t say.

In truth, Rachel rarely manipulated Chloe with sex like this, especially after selfishly getting off.

But tonight just could _not_ go wrong.

And Chloe could use as much extra motivation to swallow her pride and unfuck things as she could get.

For now, it was nice to just lay squeezed in Chloe’s embrace and think about how this night might go well.

This was all going to work out, somehow.

She just knew it.

Chloe was so warm, her breathing so relaxing on Rachel’s hair, she could almost fall asleep and dream about it.

And what they might do tonight, afterwards.

What kind of sounds Chloe would make.

How happy she would be, afterwards.

Unfucked relationship with Max, Vic not as her enemy, having her girlfriend fuck her …

Yeah.

That settled it.

This night had to go perfect.

For Chloe’s sake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explicit Amberprice? Explicit Amberprice. Sorry if you're only here for Chasefield. :P


	12. Movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Movie date.
> 
> Rachel speaks some French.
> 
> Chloe goes to the bathroom.
> 
> Max giggles, thinking about pink hair.

Movie date.

This can’t go _that_ bad, can it?

Max was breathing uneasily as she looked out the window of Victoria’s car while they drove to the movie theater.

Most of the time they wouldn’t even be talking, just watching a movie.

Yeah.

Even if everyone hated everyone else, this can’t go that bad.

Ugh, but it totally could still.

Max knew how ‘well’ Victoria treated strangers or people she didn’t care for.

She already knew how poorly her and Chloe got along – sniping at each other constantly, slowly riling the both of them up.

Ugh.

The car stopped, and Max carefully looked away from the window back to Victoria.

With the car parked, Victoria had some lipstick in her hand and was making sure her appearance was just right using a small mirror.

Max watched her for a second or two, and couldn’t help a smile despite her anxiety about this going wrong.

Victoria looked so amazing, tonight.

It was “only” a movie date but she still insisted on a gorgeous black sequin dress.

Even just now, from the little light coming from the random lights outside, the dress glistened in attractive, unpredictable ways.

It was breath-taking.

To not freeze to death, she also had a blindingly-white bomber jacket on, too.

Victoria always wore so much white and never seemed to spill anything on it.

Max never understood how.

She topped the whole look off with some heeled leather boots and entirely-too-much golden jewelry, both along her neck and her wrists and fingers.

And completely flawless makeup, of course, if a bit heavy on the eyeshadow and eyeliner compared to her baseline. But it was night, so heavier makeup was appropriate.

Max always found Victoria particularly attractive, even when she didn’t know how to vocalize it was physical attraction, but she was beyond Max’s words when she dressed up even more than usual.

Victoria caught her obviously and dangerously ogling when she finished refining her lipstick and smacked her lips, and then chuckled deeply.

The lipstick went back into her equally-blindingly-white purse.

“Staring much, Caulfield?”

Max’s mouth had been unconsciously gaped, and she slowly nodded.

“Yeah. You look so amazing.”

Victoria closed her eyes and sighed pleasantly.

From anyone else, the compliment would sound hollow and forced. Part of the game of being around her asshole friends.

But Victoria knew Max meant the compliment genuinely.

Max genuinely found Victoria attractive, no matter how dolled up or not she was.

And that was … a really nice thought.

It put a little smile on her face as she opened her eyes again and re-examined her girlfriend.

It wasn’t like Max was a slouch here either.

With some effort spent over the time they’ve been together, Victoria slowly influenced Max’s wardrobe, and was pretty pleased with the results.

Max wore distressed skinny jeans instead of mom jeans.

Max wore proper throw cardigans or denim jackets instead of boring gray hoodies.

Max still … had her dopey animal shirts, but some proper ones as well. Whatever. Looking _a little_ dorky was still part of her charm.

Victoria also probably quintupled Max’s shoe collection. She just needed more.

The change in style made the choker-collar stand out a bit less, and look a bit more appropriate.

She gave Max matching bracelets to wear on nights such as this to make it seem even more appropriate.

 

Tonight, however, Max looked a bit different.

 

If Victoria’s arm was twisted the closest comparison would be to Rachel.

Max had on a blue plaid flannel and wore the sleeves up a little bit to let all of her bracelets show.

She wore it open and loose so that her tee shirt and its graphic – a heavily stylized face of doe – could be seen still.

Max and her animal shirts.

She had on some black skinny jeans so tight they left nothing to the imagination, which was exactly how Victoria liked it, anyway.

Some colorful tie-die converse and a purposeful amount of makeup sealed the deal.

Victoria didn’t really like Max wearing foundation, since it diminished her freckles, and Victoria found them cute.

A little bit of lipstick, though, and some eyeliner …

Yeah, that was just fine.

Victoria’s smile got a bit wider as Max happily allowed her girlfriend to ogle her in return.

“You don’t look half-bad either.”

Max just smiled, smiled, smiled.

Victoria suddenly shook her head, cleared her throat, and opened her car door to step outside.

Max thoughtlessly opened her own door to follow her out.

“Ugh. Christ. It’s fucking cold. My legs are _freezing._ ”

Max blinked as Victoria crossed her arms and shivered a little bit.

Max smiled just barely.

“If you wore jeans more often …”

Victoria rolled her eyes and scoffed, starting to walk off towards the theater. Max followed.

“Don’t sass me, girl.”

Max smiled, smiled, smiled.

“Yes’m.”

Victoria made a pleased exhale at this. Their “dynamic” usually wasn’t a very public thing – except when Max wanted to be fucked up against a window or something – but the little reminders were always nice.

She knew what Max meant when she said this, and it wasn’t just being polite.

Victoria’s heels clacked proudly as they made their progress.

“So, um, Chloe … and Rachel.”

Victoria closed her eyes and breathed in deeply at Max bringing it up.

She had every right to be worried about this, of course.

“What _about_.”

Max bit her own lip, but wasn’t bothered by Victoria’s tone in the slightest anymore by now.

“Are you worried? That this’ll go sideways?”

Victoria scoffed.

“No. Of course not. Not in a million years.”

Max sighed a little bit.

That came out a bit too quickly, a bit too automatically, a bit too thoughtlessly, a bit too pitched.

She didn’t buy it.

“Victoria …”

Victoria groaned painfully and looked over to Max.

At least when she was wearing so much makeup she didn’t do that thing she always did by rubbing her temples, since that’d disrupt it.

“What do you want me to say, Max? I hate them both. They both hate me. This is going to be a fireworks show.”

Max frowned a little bit.

“You haven’t even given them a chance.”

Victoria grunted.

“I’ve known them for years, Max. I fucking know exactly what to expect by now.”

Max sighed.

Victoria carefully studied Max’s face, and watched her expression fall and die painfully.

Ugh.

Fuck.

Wrong answer.

Victoria bit her own lip and looked back forward, still freezing her tits off from this god damn weather.

“But … I don’t know. Maybe with you around things can be … different.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max’s expression revive itself somewhat, with a little gentle smile.

“I don’t need you guys to be amazing friends, just … not vicious enemies.”

Victoria nodded gently.

“And perhaps that can be arranged.”

Max smiled wider.

So did Victoria.

Even if she didn’t fully believe it.

Whatever, Max deserved to feel as good as she could about this.

 

They met up with Rachel and Chloe inside, where there was finally some fucking heat.

Victoria was far and away the best dressed out of the four, but that was hardly surprising.

Max and Rachel looked pretty similar, though Rachel’s flannel was a different color – red -- and tied around her waist to better show off the slightly-torn band shirt she had underneath.

Rachel was also wearing boots to Max’s converse, and had on probably as much makeup as Victoria did.

Victoria was always deeply jealous of Rachel’s skill in putting on makeup, especially when she went full-out doll mode like this.

She looked so fucking perfect ugh.

Chloe wasn’t even wearing a jacket or anything somehow, just her usual beanie and graphic wife beater.

Her jeans were the most distressed out of the three of them by far, to the point that her right knee was completely exposed.

How the hell did she not freeze to death was beyond Victoria.

Chloe didn’t even bother to wear her bra correctly, and a little black strap was visible on one of her shoulders.

But at least she was wearing makeup right. Not as much as Rachel or Victoria, but definitely a lot.

Victoria wasn’t going to admit she was cute, but she could see what Rachel saw in her, at least.

“Hi Chloe, Rachel.”

Max spoke first as they got within ear shot, and Rachel and Chloe turned to face Max and Victoria.

Rachel was smiling like she always did, and Chloe was smiling so long as her eyes were on Max.

She still did that thing of frowning slightly when she looked at Victoria, and that was whatever.

“Hey dude.”

“Heeeeeey.”

The three of them looked to Victoria, who huffed slightly, but didn’t delay much longer.

“Bonjour.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, and Rachel giggled a little, looking over to Chloe.

“Je ne sais pas pourquoi  … eh … elle fait ça.”

Victoria blinked.

Goddamn it, Rachel.

Chloe blinked twice stupidly, and looked between the two of them.

She was obviously totally lost, which was kind of an endearing, dopey look to Victoria, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

“Uhm. Yeah. Totally. J’adore.”

That was probably the only French Chloe knew, which earned a little amused scoff out of Victoria.

Max was totally lost too, though.

“Um … English, please?”

Rachel giggled again and shook her head.

“Sorry, sweetie. It doesn’t matter. Does it?”

Rachel looked over to Victoria.

Victoria bit her own lip.

Her own instinct was to disagree with Rachel just for the sake of it, to be annoying.

But … Max was right there. And what they said honestly didn’t matter.

Ugh. Whatever.

“No. Not really. Enough banter. Movie.”

Rachel and Max nodded pleasantly, though Chloe huffed a little at being bossed around like that.

The three of them still followed Victoria as she went up to the ticket window and bought movie tickets, though.

That transaction was over with pretty quickly.

Chloe did raise her eyebrow at how totally different Victoria acted to stranger service workers, though, all happy and fake and plastic and pleased-sounding.

What _was_ Victoria’s game, anyway?

Max obviously saw something in her, but Chloe couldn’t figure out what.

She was so obviously fake all of the time, either fake and pleasant like just now or fake and smug like usually.

Max wasn’t just into her because Victoria was hot, was she?

This seemed the most likely, but also sat the most uncomfortably with her understanding of Max.

The hell else could it be, though?

The tickets were bought, and the four of them walked into the theater to start buying snacks.

Rachel elbowed Chloe after Victoria placed the order of some snacks and started to look at her phone.

Right.

Rachel had asked Chloe to do something when she saw Victoria …

“Um. Hey. Vic.”

Victoria rolled her eyes and didn’t look up from her phone.

“ _Victoria_. My name is _Victoria_.”

Max and Rachel looked between the two of them, watching carefully for signs of sparks or fireworks.

Chloe bit her lip, but just shook her head slightly with a small sigh.

She looked helplessly to Rachel.

Rachel spared Chloe a _look_ , and begrudgingly Chloe looked back to Victoria.

Max watched the wordless exchange blinking stupidly.

“Yeah-whatever. You look … nice, tonight.”

Victoria scoffed again.

“As though I don’t know that.”

Chloe frowned, and Rachel carefully suppressed a giggle.

Really shouldn’t have expected her to be anything but a bitch.

But.

This wasn’t an exchange just between Chloe and Victoria, bound to end the same ways it always did.

Max was here.

And she frowned too, and somewhat inelegantly elbowed Victoria.

Victoria sighed painfully and looked up from her phone to Max, where upon her face immediately softened.

This was … weird, to Chloe.

She could literally watch Victoria become less bitchy just by looking at Max.

Is that the impact any girlfriend had on her? Or just Max specifically?

Damn, what if Victoria _needed_ someone like Max?

That was a weird-ass thought.

Victoria finally looked towards Chloe, and although her expression did reharden, it wasn’t as unforgiving as it usually was.

She sighed.

“Thanks. I guess.”

Max smiled happily at this, and so did Rachel.

Chloe blinked.

She wasn’t expecting that at all.

“You’re welcome. I guess.”

Rachel slid up a bit closer to Chloe’s ear to whisper gently.

“Thanks.”

Chloe sighed and smiled a little bit, herself.

Their order of drinks and popcorn came up, and they all took their set.

 

Banter was pretty limited and efficient as they made their way to their specific theater – mostly fumbling with their tickets and trying to find out where it was.

But they got there eventually, and found their seats.

“Who sits where.”

The four of them paused.

“Not the edge. No randos are sitting next to me.”

Victoria spoke first, and huffed a little.

She hated Rachel with all of her might and fury, but sitting next to Rachel would still be preferred over some fat idiot slob who might spill something on her or something.

Chloe rolled her eyes, and Rachel just shrugged.

Rachel knew it would probably be best if there was distance between her and Victoria, and didn’t mind a stranger being close to her.

“Fine. I’ll take that then.”

They had four seats, starting with the isle seat and working four down, so Rachel took the fourth away from the isle to act as their friendly stranger buffer.

“Shotgun.”

Chloe didn’t have to think very hard about where she wanted to sit – right next to Rachel.

That left two seats left, and no matter how arranged, Max and Victoria would be together.

Victoria gestured politely for Max to go into the isle, since she didn’t want to sit next to Chloe in the slightest.

Max wanted to sit next to pretty much everyone, but this seemed like a good compromise.

They sat down Rachel, Chloe, Max, and Victoria. The most possible distance between Victoria and Rachel, Max and Chloe together, and the two couples together as well.

As good as it was going to be.

They settled in as the trailers continued.

Even though they all came in like ten minutes late specifically to avoid trailers, apparently that wasn’t aggressive enough.

They were watching a horror movie.

In all of her time knowing Max, Chloe never knew her to like these kinds of things.

She was too much of a scaredy cat.

This put a thought in Chloe’s mind.

After munching on some pop corn, she breathed in and looked over to Max.

“Watch a lot of this shit, Max?”

Max smiled and nodded pleasantly.

She opened her mouth to say something, but –

“We watch horror movies every so often.”

Victoria answered for her, and her words were a little sharp.

Chloe’s eyes flickered from Max to Victoria, and she frowned a little.

But Max sighed and carefully moved her hand over to reaffirmingly rub at Chloe’s arm, in some effort to calm the tension.

When they were younger, touch like this was always the most effective way to, and she kind of hoped it still was.

Sure enough, after a second or two of processing, Chloe sighed pleasantly and flicked her eyes down to Max’s hand on her, rubbing like that.

It felt pretty nice.

“Thanks, _Max._ ”

Rachel giggled distantly.

The trailers continued to play, and for a few more moments, that was enough.

Everyone just gently chewed on their popcorn as more people came into the theater and filled up the seats around them.

Rachel took Chloe’s other arm to intertwine their fingers and squeeze it tightly.

She whispered into her ear again.

“You’re doing amazing babe. Ask Vic a question or two. She won’t want to be a bitch in front of Max. It’ll be great.”

Chloe frowned a little, but knew she wasn’t going to meaningfully object to Rachel, and after a second or two of processing looked over again.

Max looked to her, but Chloe looked farther past her to Victoria.

“’ey, Vic ---”

Victoria groaned.

“--- _Victoria._ ”

Chloe just rolled her eyes.

Max sneaked in a bit closer to Chloe’s ear.

“ _Max_ , never Maxine; _Victoria_ , never Vic.”

Chloe blinked a little bit, but sighed.

Whatever.

“ _Victoria_ ,”

Chloe was careful to repeat even the absurd amount of emphasis Victoria put on this word,

“You like horror movies too? Get the feeling you’d fear a lil’ ol’ rat, let alone some … psycho murder.”

Rachel hummed thoughtfully and sang a little song quietly.

“Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est. Fa-fa fa-fa …”

Victoria scoffed at the two of them, though Max smiled gently.

She remembers the one time a rat found its way into the same hallway both she and Victoria were in.

And her rather _loud_ reaction.

“As if. You mistake me for someone useless. I would never.”

Max gently wormed away from Chloe to lean the other way onto Victoria and meaningfully intertwine their fingers.

She squeezed her hand and didn’t even need to say any words to communicate what she wanted to.

Victoria sighed a little, and looked back off to the screen.

“Rats are disgusting, anyway. Can’t fault anyone for having a reaction to them. But yes. I do like horror.”

Max smiled wider.

“And anime.”

Chloe blinked, though the news wasn’t surprising at all to Rachel.

Victoria grunted.

“Shush, dear.”

Max nodded gently.

“Yes’m.”

Chloe watched the exchange between the two of them pretty wordlessly, though was amused at Victoria both claiming to be above fearing rats while also talking about how disgusting they were, as if it wasn’t painfully transparent.

And then the little back and forth?

With Max calling Victoria ma’am?

Chloe was pretty sure that’s what she heard.

That was kind of weird.

If Rachel asked Chloe to do something, she’d … almost certainly do it with varying amounts of complaining and resistance, but she’d never call Rachel ‘ma’am’ or something.

Just what kind of relationship did they have, anyway?

They got together by making out?

And she thought how she and Rachel bonded was fast …

And then there was that whole weird scene in the Vortex Club lounge.

Where Victoria was fucking masturbating Max for everyone to see.

Not explicitly, but still, damn.

Chloe could still remember the way Max moaned.

Not exactly an easy thing to forget.

“Dork.”

The response came out a bit too late and without too much of a thought.

Rachel squeezed Chloe’s hand, and Chloe huffed.

But Victoria just shrugged.

“Takes one to know one.”

The accusation didn’t seem to bother her that much, since this tone wasn’t even that bitchy.

Just kind of … bored. Automatic.

Still weird that they were even talking to any degree about anything, considering their past.

Maybe Max really was mellowing out Victoria.

Before Chloe had much more time to think about things, the lights in the theaters went down, and the volume kicked up proper, and the movie started.

 

Whatever. It could wait.

 

The movie started to go by pretty peacefully.

It was a horror movie, and the four of them were all genuinely interested in it, so there wasn’t too much talking.

Max and Victoria, much like Rachel and Chloe, just quietly held their date’s hand throughout most of it while eating popcorn and drinking soda.

No real need to say anything.

However, about halfway through the movie, when it was starting to drag a bit, Chloe got out of her seat.

“Potty.”

Victoria scoffed.

“Weak bladder.”

Chloe shrugged, but walked her way past the four of them to the stairs leading down all of the same.

“Takes one to know one.”

Another scoff.

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

Chloe shrugged again, turning around and walking down the stairs backwards so Victoria could appreciate her shrugging more fully,

“So’s your face.”

Rachel and Max both giggled, and Victoria just sighed painfully.

Chloe was all smiles as she made her way down and out of the theater.

When she was out of her shot, Max snuggled more into Victoria’s side.

“You should go talk to her.”

Victoria grunted.

“Gross.”

Max huffed a little.

“For me? Please, sweetie?”

Victoria hesitated, and repeated that pained groaning.

She still squeezed Max’s hand, and Max still reciprocated.

“I don’t know why I do these things, I swear.”

Victoria stood up herself, and saw Rachel looking at her sidelong with that stupid fucking smile she always had.

Whatever.

Max’s smile was much nicer to look at.

“Because you love me.”

Victoria crossed her arms, sighed, but nodded slowly.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

She smiled too, and opened her eyes to look at Max for just a second or two.

Someone in the row behind them was giving her the stink eye, though, probably for more than one reason, so she didn’t labor the look any longer, and soon walked down the stairs after Chloe.

 

Victoria kept her arms crossed while she entered the bathroom.

At least it didn’t smell too awful in here, though she swore she could smell Chloe just because the girl never fucking showered and could be smelled a mile away.

She walked to the center and leaned over a bit to see that only one of the stalls were occupied, and huffed.

And hesitated.

She could just _say_ she talked to Chloe.

Max probably wouldn’t be any the wiser for a while, since she still had to repair stuff with Chloe herself, and that seemed to be going … slowly and poorly.

But …

Max wanted this.

Victoria could tell it was eating away at her to not be able to talk to Chloe like she used to.

Ugh.

Whatever.

Victoria uncrossed one of her arms to bang on the stall.

“Ey, ocupado!”

Chloe’s voice, and Victoria sighed wearily.

This was going to suck.

“It’s Victoria. I’m here to talk, not use your stall, _Jesus_.”

Quiet.

“Uh. To _talk_? You sure?”

Victoria banged on the stall again.

“No, I just said that to trick you. Yes _of course_.”

Chloe grunted.

Victoria could hear her going number one, but thankfully that was it.

“Uhhhh well … don’t really want to talk to you, sorry.”

Victoria sighed.

“And I don’t really want to talk to you either.”

Quiet.

“ _But_.”

Ugh, this felt so painful.

At least this was a semi-private place and no one would hear her talk like this.

“This isn’t about us. It’s about you and Max.”

Chloe sighed.

“Yeah …”

Chloe suddenly sounded a little wistful, and it was something.

Victoria didn’t know how to process it.

“And I frankly don’t give a shit if you don’t like me, because I don’t like you, but I want Max to be happy.”

Chloe scoffed.

“Feeling’s mutual, I guess.”

She stood up and flushed the toilet.

The stall unlocked and Chloe walked out to stand in front of Victoria, arms as crossed as hers.

Her face had a frown.

“What do you propose?”

Victoria bit her lip and looked off into the empty stall for a second or two before back to Chloe.

Ugh.

“That we at least _try_ and not hate each other. Max isn’t expecting us to be friendly, just … not trying to kill each other.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“Dunno about that one, Vicky ... toria. My urge to kill is pretty strong around you.”

It suddenly just snapped into place for Victoria that this was Chloe being playful, and she blinked a little.

“Yes, well … maybe we can murder each other when Max isn’t around.”

Chloe’s frown went away and she had a little amused exhale.

“Was that a joke, Chase?”

Victoria rolled her eyes and brushed past Chloe to start leaving.

“Must I explain everything to you, Price? I’m leaving.”

Chloe watched her go away with the faintest of smiles.

It was kind of weird to feel like Victoria was actually playing along with her jokes without too much spite.

When Victoria was just by the door, though, Chloe cleared her throat.

“Hey. Um.”

Victoria hesitated, and the two turned to face one another.

“Is Max … good? Like. As a girlfriend.”

She blinked, and considered offering some spines, because this was so not a topic she wanted to broach with Chloe, but …

Chloe probably just wanted to know what was going on here.

Max certainly was a different person before she spent much time around Victoria.

It was probably just surprising –

Ugh. No. Don’t relate to the idiot.

“Yes. She’s wonderful.”

She stopped thinking about it by just stating the truth, plainly and evenly.

Her voice was probably as gentle as Chloe had ever heard it, and Chloe bit her lip upon hearing it.

She visibly and painfully hesitated for a second or two, and Victoria considered just taking off.

Whatever.

“You’ve hurt people, you know.”

Victoria huffed.

“At least I haven’t punched anyone out.”

Chloe exhaled, amused, and uncrossed her arms to look at one of her own hands briefly.

She crackled her knuckles.

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“Yeah … but like ---”

Chloe closed her eyes and breathed in deep,

“I hurt people who fuckin’ deserve it. Homophobes. Transphobes. Sexists. Assholes. I don’t pick fights with people who don’t need a fist in their face.”

She opened her eyes.

“You bully and hurt people who … don’t deserve it. Just people who are a little awkward sometimes. People like … y’know.”

They both shared a frown for a second or two.

Victoria closed her eyes and had her own second or two to breathe in deeply.

“That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

She opened her eyes and they both awkwardly frowned at each other for a few seconds longer.

In truth, Victoria really didn’t have any convincing reason why what she was doing was ever okay.

Nothing that would be convincing to someone like Chloe, anyway.

“But … I understand what you’re saying. In some other universe, I’d probably be bullying Max. Instead of fucking her.”

They both had a brief moment of amused sounds at the vulgarity and common understanding.

Chloe didn’t know about the time before Victoria and Max got together, which made this point easier to make, thankfully.

Victoria shook her head.

“But I’m not going to hurt Max. I’ll do … _fucking anything_ to make sure of that.”

Chloe pursed her lips, and seemed to consider pause in consideration.

“I really want to believe that, Victoria.”

This was the truth. It’s not like she wanted to distrust Max’s questionable taste in women.

Victoria frowned.

“But you can’t?”

Chloe shook her head.

“You just have such a track record …”

Victoria sighed wearily and closed her eyes.

Her reputation probably would make most people suspicious of her intentions.

But.

Whatever.

This wasn’t for her.

This was for Max.

She opened her eyes.

 

“What would it take to convince you?”

 

The question gave Chloe even more pause.

She wanted this to go over at least okay enough that Rachel would be happy at her, and Max for that matter.

But papering over her differences with Victoria for appearances and genuinely being okay with their relationship were different things.

And if Victoria was interested in fixing the latter, not just the former …

Well.

Chloe had an idea or two.

She didn’t have to think about it too long.

 

“I want to see you two fucking. And you not being a giant bitch to her during it. I want to _know_ you can make her feel loved.”

 

Victoria blinked only about a million times.

That was … so not what she was expecting.

Maybe some kind of bet where Chloe would do something unpleasant to her.

Or just a promise?

But no, this?

This was something else.

Not that Victoria was entirely against the idea, though.

She wanted as many people as possible to not just know Max was hers, but that she could extract such wonderful and pleasured sounds out of her.

Their kinks worked nicely into it, even.

Hard to think Chloe would be okay with this, but … she clearly had her reasons for wanting something like this.

And she didn’t look horribly offended when she saw Max being fingered by Victoria in the Vortex Club all that long ago.

Or when she learned that Max was an exhibitionist.

“I’m … surprised, Price. Never pinned you for a voyeur.”

Chloe exhaled, amused, and walked up to Victoria.

“I am a riddle wrapped up in an enigma.”

Victoria blinked.

Now Chloe was quoting history?

Chloe grinned.

“Churchill, dude.”

Victoria grunted.

“I fucking _know_ that.”

Chloe grinned wider.

“You sure? It sure didn’t seem like it. It looked like you were confused.”

Victoria groaned painfully and turned to open the door to leave the bathroom.

“Ugh. Whatever. You’re impossible.”

Chloe chuckled, but followed after her.

She looked around, but at least no one was in the halls leading to their theater either.

Quiet.

“So … yes?”

Victoria sighed.

“I … have no clue. I’ll have to talk with Max about this.”

Chloe blinked.

“That’s … a good idea, actually.”

Victoria sputtered an inelegant laugh and looked back to Chloe briefly.

“You didn’t talk to Rachel about this desire of yours.”

Not a question.

Chloe grinned and just shrugged.

“Nah. Not yet, anyway. She’ll be cool, though.”

Victoria looked back forward and just rolled her eyes.

How obnoxious would Chloe be as a girlfriend if she didn’t even think to talk about this stuff before springing it?

Victoria pointedly ignored the self-awareness that she hid as much as she could from Max for as long as she could, since that might make her relate to Chloe, or something.

“Well, do that first, you _buffoon_ , and we’ll talk about it later.”

Quiet.

“Until then … truce?”

Victoria looked back to Chloe, who was still grinning, despite the insult, since she’d kinda figured out by now they were mostly toothless.

“Yeah … sure.”

Victoria looked back forward with a pleasant sigh.

“Good. If you fuck with replacing my shampoo with hair dye again I will _actually_ murder you.”

Chloe laughed.

“Death threats are a good start to our truce. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Quiet.

“You did look better with pink hair, though … maybe I’ll talk to Max about that.”

Victoria blinked.

“You are _not_.”

Chloe grinned wider.

“Has she even _seen_ a picture of you with pink hair?”

Victoria groaned painfully and shook her head.

“Chloe, _no_.”

Chloe stepped up to her side, still grinning like the obnoxious idiot she was.

“Chloe, _yes_. I wanna see the look on Max’s face …”

Chloe suddenly took off in a run to their theater.

Oh.

Fuck.

That was.

Goddamn it.

Begrudgingly, Victoria started walking briskly until she was back in the theater, to not give Chloe too much time to whisper these awful nothings into her girlfriend's ear.

Victoria was _not_ dyeing her hair pink.

 

The first time Chloe had a proper conversation with Max where the years of radio silence was not the subject was after she hurriedly bolted to the seat next to Max, sat down a bit too forcefully, said her name a few too many times, and excitedly pulled out her phone to talk to her about the legendary pink-haired Victoria.

As Victoria walked up the steps, she had to admit …

They both looked genuinely happy, amused.

When they looked to her, both with such warm smiles, Victoria couldn’t help but to smile a little bit herself.

Until she saw that her seat was taken, and she had to sit down next to Rachel.

Ugh.

Whatever.

They didn’t have to talk, or anything …

Victoria sat down in Chloe’s old seat, next to Rachel, and kind of settled in awkwardly.

At least Chloe was basically leaning entirely into Max’s while they talked excitedly about all of the times Chloe was a dick to Victoria.

Rachel suddenly looked over to Victoria.

She leaned in close –

Victoria frowned –

Rachel spoke in a gentle whisper.

“Hey. Thanks. For … whatever you did.”

Victoria blinked a few times.

“I … didn’t do anything.”

Rachel just smiled.

“Uh-huh.”

She looked past Victoria to Chloe and Max, and Victoria imitated it.

It was nice to see Max so happy, like that …

 

Eventually, Chloe’s excitable blabbing got some popcorn thrown at her and some people sitting behind them upset, at which point the little pow-wow was stopped.

Chloe and Victoria exchanged seats.

Max was more than happy to re-nestle into Victoria’s side and deliver tons of bubbly kisses to her neck.

“Thanks. You’re so amazing.”

Victoria sighed pleasantly and melted into her seat and Max’s affections.

Maybe she did do something.

That’s the most words Chloe had said to Max in _weeks_.

And they seemed so happy talking about this and that …

Victoria smiled.

 

As Chloe absorbed similar affection from Rachel for being a Good Girl, she settled into her seat, relaxed from her conversation with Max, and left with a lot to think about with her conversation with Victoria.

Chloe smiled.

 

This night wasn’t going like how anyone planned, but probably about as good as it could have gone so far.


	13. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max crushes on Vic.
> 
> Chloe gawks at a dress.
> 
> Rachel schemes.
> 
> Victoria watches Chloe try to eat an entire roast beef sandwich in one breath.

As the movie came to a close, the four of them exited the theater in a close grouping.

Victoria still used Max pointedly as a buffer from being too physically close to either Chloe or Rachel, but there wasn’t an aura of constant disdain anymore, more like a passive annoyance.

Since, well, Chloe and Rachel were both obnoxious, and together, they were especially so.

“You know in the book, that girl has an orgy with all of the boys.”

Victoria blinked about a million times at Rachel’s sudden interjection.

So did Max, but Chloe scoffed playfully.

Victoria rolled her eyes.

“My life is enriched knowing about this, _thanks._ ”

The three of them looked to Victoria as they continued walking back to their cars.

“Thinking about a nice orgy now, Vicky … toria?”

Chloe still wasn’t saying her name right, but was clearly trying, so, whatever.

Victoria shook her head barely.

“As if. That was a little thing called _sarcasm_.”

Rachel hummed thoughtfully.

“It’s Victoria’s native tongue. Truth is a foreign language to her.”

The three – excluding Victoria – laughed and giggled at Rachel’s little jab, but Victoria just huffed.

Max pointedly took Victoria’s hand to squeeze it and offer her some wordless affectionate reassurances.

It made it … a lot easier to deal with Rachel.

“I’m also learning stupid as a foreign language, which is the only way I can communicate with you two.”

 Max giggled, Chloe scoffed, and Rachel gasped.

“Ooooooooooohhh.”

Rachel then giggled,

“That hurt. Owch.”

Victoria just rolled her eyes, but, she was smiling slightly, barely.

Quiet.

“Seriously though. The red head. When she cut her hair. I’m in love.”

Rachel looked sidelong to her girlfriend and playfully huffed.

“I’m kind of right here, you know.”

Chloe smiled.

“Oh. Hey there, beautiful. I forgot.”

The two giggled and looked to one another to share a brief, affectionate kiss.

Max hummed thoughtfully.

“I kept looking at the boy with short blonde hair.”

Victoria frowned a little.

“The bully? Who was friends with that fucking psycho?”

Max nodded slowly, and Rachel just grinned.

“Gee, imagine that. Max is crushing on someone named Vic who is friends with the resident psycho.”

Victoria _glared_ at Rachel, who wore the stare quite proudly.

Max blinked about a million times.

“No way. He is _not_ named Vic. That’s …”

Rachel giggled,

“Cosmically-guided, you so totally have a type, Max! It’s adorable.”

Victoria frowned.

“I’m resenting the comparison, here.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“You resent everything.”

Victoria huffed, the other three laughed and giggled.

Max squeezed Victoria’s hand.

Victoria returned it and calmed down slightly.

Rachel shook her head.

“But, anyway, if you actually read the book, Vic turns out to be a good guy. Kind of. He’s originally with the bullies but warns the losers about Henry’s instability.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

Slightly better comparison to make.

Max nodded appreciatively, too, and rubbed up Victoria’s arm for no particular reason other than just wanting to touch her.

“So …”

Max was speaking, now, which surprised Victoria very slightly,

“… you’re saying he’s a bit of a bitch with a heart of gold?”

Rachel giggled.

“Yeah. Like I said. Your type.”

Victoria huffed, but she was actually blushing a little, since the teasing abruptly transformed into a compliment and she didn’t quite know how to handle that when it came from Rachel, of all people.

Still.

Victoria cleared her throat.

“Anyway.”

The four them stopped and looked to one another.

“This is where we split for the evening.”

Chloe and Max nodded, but Rachel –

“Really? I was thinking we could have a nice fancy dinner.”

The three of them excluding Rachel blinked at the surprising news.

Rachel wasn’t discouraged from the less-than-stellar reaction, and looked to Victoria.

“You didn’t dress up that well to have precisely two people see you with Max all cute like this, did you?”

Victoria frowned,

“I …”

But, damnit, Rachel. She kind of had a point.

Rachel smiled and looked to Max.

“How often have you had a nice dinner in a fancy restaurant with Victoria?”

Max hummed dreamily.

“Not enough.”

Chloe blinked, and when Rachel suddenly looked to her, realized she was probably going to get coerced too.

“I am _not_ going to a fancy restaurant –“

This resistance provided a small measure of relief for Victoria, but Rachel just giggled and kissed at Chloe’s lips.

It was firm and meaningful, and more important, quieted Chloe’s resistance.

“--- in that getup, I know. We’re going to have change.”

Chloe just blinked and blinked.

“… c-change?”

Rachel grinned wider still.

“I have two dresses in the car, babe.”

Victoria was almost impressed at Rachel’s forward-thinking.

Of course Chloe wouldn’t agree to this if she knew a dress and a dinner date was involved, but it was sprung on her in the moment …

“ _A dress_??”

Chloe sounded like an offended 12-year-old and Rachel just looked away from her with a smile to Max.

“Sorry. I don’t have anything for you. And because Victoria doesn’t love you enough I’m sure she doesn’t have any backup dresses in her car.”

Max blinked and giggled a little but –

Victoria huffed, wrapped one of her arms around to Max’s opposite shoulder, and firmly tugged her into her side protectively.

Not that Max was resisting.

“Excuse you. Unlike you, I don’t _need_ my girlfriend to change who she is to go a fancy place. She’s just fine as-is.”

Sparks.

Chloe and Max went quiet, looking between Rachel’s ever-present grinning and Victoria’s ever-present frowning.

“Owch. That hurt.”

Rachel was still smiling, though, and looked back to Chloe.

“You don’t mind, do you?”

Chloe was suddenly between a rock and a hard place.

She definitely _did_ mind wearing a dress, thank you very much, but she didn’t want to agree with Victoria or contradict Rachel and ugh ---

“Iunno. I’m not really … a dress person.”

Victoria looked over to her.

“Putting it _mildly_ , Price.”

Max giggled.

Rachel just rolled her eyes and took her girlfriend’s hand to start tugging her back to their car.

“Well. _We’re_ having a dinner at Gabrielle’s. You ought to join us. It’ll be great.”

Chloe offered a sort of helpless look back to the two of them which made Max giggle again, while Victoria just watched them go quietly.

 

When they were out of ear-shot, Max sighed quietly.

“You don’t need to be so hostile to Rachel, Mistress.”

Victoria huffed, turned around, and started walking to her car, still keeping Max tightly and protectively in her side.

“Yes. Yes I do.”

Max groaned a little and shoved her face into some part of Victoria’s wardrobe, not minding how this might disturb her makeup.

“She just wants everyone to get along.”

Victoria scoffed.

“She wants to play everyone like a fucking fiddle.”

Max shrugged.

“Maybe. Is it so bad if she’s playing everyone just to get along, though?”

Victoria huffed, and went quiet, since she didn’t really have a good answer for that.

They kept on walking.

“She even makes Chloe uncomfortable with her games. Like with the dress.”

Max hummed thoughtfully.

“I don’t think Chloe was _seriously_ objecting. I don’t think Rachel would … force her to do anything like that.”

Max shrugged again a little,

“Chloe just … needs a little pushing sometimes, I guess.”

She moved up her face to kiss at some part of Victoria’s neck.

They got into Victoria’s car, and after putting on their seatbelts, Max sighed.

“Can we please go?”

Victoria looked to Max, hesitated, and sighed wearily.

“You’re _ruining_ me, hipster. Fine.”

Max giggled happily and stole one of Victoria’s hands to kiss it affectionately.

Victoria allowed this, though with no small amount of blushing.

 

They drove off to meet Rachel and Chloe at the restaurant.

 

\---

 

While Chloe was awkwardly changing in the truck’s cabin – and while Rachel obviously watched – Chloe made a thoughtful sound.

She finished putting on this damn dress, but at last Rachel had the decency to make it a simple black thing.

It even had pockets, somehow.

Rachel must have been listening all of the millions of times Chloe complained about how impractical dresses were.

Still.

Chloe huffed.

“You know, not just _anyone_ could get me into a dress …”

Rachel just smirked.

“Really? I thought you just _loved_ them.”

Chloe spared her an unamused look.

Rachel giggled.

“The lady doth protest too much. You look fine in it.”

Chloe huffed again.

“Just ‘fine’?”

Rachel hummed thoughtfully and went quiet.

She inched a bit closer and carefully placed her hands on Chloe’s sides, to feel at the smoothness of the dress and how it played with Chloe’s curves.

Her voice became low, and irresistibly seductive.

“… maybe a bit more than _just_ fine …”

She bit her own lip afterwards in a pointed manner, letting Chloe observe it for a few seconds.

The two of them grinned, now.

Rachel leaned in for a quick, but passionate kiss, and after they broke away, she pushed herself away from Chloe to give her more room to finish changing.

“But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Chloe rolled her eyes.

Rachel was such a tease, sometimes.

She resumed changing, putting on some combat boots, since she always had some in the truck and there was no way in hell she was going to put on these dainty little heels Rachel had brought along.

She didn’t really need another layer, since they were going to go right inside anyway, but she did eye Rachel’s flannel for a bit, wondering if she could steal it from her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Rachel putting the truck into gear and starting to back it up, though.

“So … what’d you and Victoria even talk about?”

Rachel was looking back as she backed up, and had a cute look of concentration on her face.

Chloe shrugged.

“… stuff.”

Did she really want to bring up the deal she had made?

… she kinda had to, didn’t she?

Rachel wouldn’t take it poorly.

She always understood.

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“As helpful as ever, Chloe. What did this ‘stuff’ involve?”

Chloe looked away.

“You know, things. We talked about people.”

Rachel made an unamused sound.

“People, huh.”

Chloe nodded.

“Like … this one person. Who has like … a face, you know.”

Rachel scoffed.

“Let me guess. This person also has eyes?”

Chloe grinned.

“Yeah! And like … a nose. You know.”

Rachel rolled her eyes again.

“Really narrows the list down.”

Chloe nodded.

“Doesn’t it?”

Rachel finished backing up and playfully slapped at Chloe’s shoulder, who wasn’t offended, and was grinning as she rubbed gently at the slap mark.

She kinda deserved that.

“Seriously, Clo.”

Chloe sighed, and her expression fell a little.

She looked out and away from Rachel, to the road, as they started to drive.

“… well, I mean. Vic said we didn’t have to be friends, just … not enemies.”

Rachel hummed thoughtfully.

“Like I told you.”

Chloe rubbed at the back of her neck.

“… you can’t prove that.”

Rachel smirked.

“You should listen to me more often, perhaps.”

Chloe kept on rubbing.

“… _maybe_.”

Rachel scoffed, amused.

She spared a quick, but affectionate look over to Chloe.

“Anything else? Or did you two just smokum peace pipe?”

It was Chloe’s turn to make an amused sound.

She looked over to Rachel and crossed her arms.

“Great. Now I’m thinking about Victoria smoking weed, thanks.”

Rachel smirked.

“’Welcome. Bet that’d be something else.”

Chloe nodded, and visualized it for a second or two.

She’d seen Victoria drunk a few times, but she wasn’t really any less bitchy.

Would weed even change her?

Or would she just be a dopier bitch?

Maybe a bit more mellow.

If Victoria even knew how to mellow out.

The thought made Chloe scoff.

“… but anyway. I made an, um, deal, of sorts.”

Rachel blinked.

“A deal?”

She spared Chloe another brief look, inquisitive.

Chloe nodded, but looked away to the road again and melted into the truck’s seating.

“… yeah. All I see from Victoria is her being a judgy bitch, and … Max deserves better than that, so … I wanted to see them fucking. To know for _sure_ Victoria can make Max feel like how she deserves.”

Rachel blinked a few times.

She wasn’t quite sure how to process that.

“… I mean, I’m sure she’s … different, behind closed doors.”

Chloe nodded.

“Maybe … I just can’t visualize it. I’ve known her for so long, Rach.”

Rachel sighed a little, and even though the truck was manual and it required both hands most of the time, she spared a few seconds to steal one of Chloe’s hands and tightly squeeze it.

“Well … okay. If you think this is for the best, I trust you.”

Rachel’s voice, for once, wasn’t playful.

Just genuine.

Honest.

The two of them shared a warm smile, and Chloe squeezed the hand back in return.

“Thanks … I’m not plannin’ on fucking them or anything, just …”

Rachel scoffed and rolled her eyes, grinning again.

“Let me know if you see them doing anything that catches your fancy.”

Chloe blinked.

And then blushed.

 

\---

 

Victoria fidgeted uneasily as they pulled up to the restaurant.

Chloe’s truck could be seen a mile away so they still hadn’t arrived yet.

They were probably still changing or something.

Max noticed Victoria’s tenor changing immediately, though, since she was used to the small and subtle changes in Victoria’s mood.

She brought a hand over to rub affectionately at her shoulder, and Victoria quite appreciated the touch, sighing heavily and melting more into her seat.

She looked over to Max.

“So … Max. We have to talk about something.”

Max blinked, but nodded carefully.

“Of course, Victoria … anything.”

Victoria bit her lip for a second or two.

She then sighed, and looked away from Max to the sidewalk leading away from their parking spot in front of them, as though it would make this any easier.

“I made a deal with Chloe when we talked to her in the bathroom.”

Max blinked, but just kept rubbing.

“Is that what caused her change of heart in … talking to me?”

Victoria shrugged.

“Lord only knows what goes through that hamster wheel of a brain of hers.”

Max giggled gently, and Victoria smirked.

“But, I guess.”

She looked over to Max.

“The deal was … _particular_.”

Max blinked again, but shrugged.

“What was it?”

Victoria’s eyes looked around the car without her head actually moving for a second or two.

She then looked at Max directly.

“She wants to watch us fucking. Once.”

Max blinked only about a million times, but produced a cute blush.

“Uhhhmmmm …”

Max removed her hand and rubbed at the back of her neck, looking away from Victoria and blushing more as she thought about it more.

Victoria sort of missed the times when she could turn Max so easily into a blushing insecure mess, so seeing this response out of her was amusing, to say the least.

Maybe closer to arousing.

“Yeah …”

Max kept looking away for a few seconds, and when she looked back, her face was positively on fire.

“… did you say ‘yes’?”

Victoria shrugged.

“I said I’d talk to you first. I figure you might have … an _opinion_ on the subject.”

Max smiled, gently.

Despite the fact Victoria was her Mistress, their relationship still felt pretty balanced, and it was nice that Victoria didn’t just force these things onto Max, even though she would totally go along with it in the moment.

They had an actual relationship, that just so happened to involve kinky sex.

“I mean … wow. I guess … Chloe really has changed after all of this time.”

Victoria just shrugged.

“She seemed more upset that you were dating me rather than the fact you were being fingered in public all of that time ago.”

Max nodded again, though got lost for a second or two remembering that time.

If Victoria was being honest, she did, too.

Eventually,

“… yeah, I guess that’s true. Did she tell you um, why she wanted this?”

Victoria shrugged again.

“Some crap about wanting to see you being ‘ _loved_ ’. Ugh.”

Max smiled a bit.

Victoria did kind of have a reputation for being a cold bitch …

Kate certainly had her concerns.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about her friends not just … trusting her judgement on this, but it felt nice that they cared about Max’s happiness.

Max inched closer to Victoria and purposefully rested her face on Victoria’s shoulder.

She found one of her hands to intertwine their fingers and squeeze it carefully.

“Well … I’m sure you won’t have any trouble doing _that_ …”

The two of them blushed, even if Max was still heated from thinking about Chloe watching her have sex with Victoria.

Max turned her face to nudge at Victoria’s neck, then a bit higher at her cheek.

The wordless request was heard, and Victoria turned to kiss purposefully at Max’s lips.

It was quick.

But pointed.

They had a few seconds of more heavy breathing afterwards, just staring at each other.

Max squeezed Victoria’s hand.

Victoria returned it.

Then, Victoria cleared her throat, pulled her hand away from Max’s, and pulled out some lipstick.

She started to fix her lipstick, though Max didn’t mind if some of Victoria’s lipstick had worn off on her from the kiss.

“Wonderful. I’m taking you as being a ‘yes’, then.”

Max hummed thoughtfully.

“I always say ‘yes’ to my Mistress.”

Victoria spared a look at Max, and just …

She smiled.

Max smiled, too.

So cutely.

Victoria had to give another kiss on Max’s cheek in response to that, even if Max had to giggle and wipe it off, and Victoria had to apply more lipstick _again_.

The moment just couldn’t go to waste.

Afterwards, Victoria just stared at Max plainly, and ran her fingers along Max’s choker-collar.

Somehow, this felt almost as intimate as the kiss earlier.

 

\---

 

As Rachel walked to the front of the Restaurant, she saw Victoria and Max waiting patiently.

Chloe stepped up behind her.

But Rachel was all smiles, even if them having to change into fancier clothes probably inconvenienced Max and Victoria.

Max still looked the same and she still had that cute warm smile on her face so long as Victoria was around.

And Victoria, was, of course, Victoria.

Trying to be as flawless as possible, and mostly succeeding at that.

Rachel herself was short on exposing her flaws to people.

And tonight had gone pretty flawlessly itself.

Mostly to plan.

Chloe didn’t want to resist the change in the moment, Victoria’s ego in showing off her relationship was easily exploited, she knew Max probably wasn’t getting the quality dates she wanted …

Almost too easy.

It left her feeling a little smug, but it wasn’t out of some sense of superiority.

Mostly not, anyway.

Everyone involved here was just … kind of stupid, and didn’t know what was best for them.

So maybe a little planning goes a long way.

And there was yet one more plot point in her plan for tonight before she just let it go as it may.

Rachel smiled and stepped up right in front of Max and Victoria.

“Max, Chloe? Would you two mind going ahead and getting us a table?”

The three of them – excluding Rachel – blinked stupidly, and it was kind of cute, but also kind of annoying.

Hurry up.

Max shrugged.

Chloe blinked.

Victoria frowned.

“I ---”

Of course Victoria would object, but Rachel wasn’t interested in hearing the objection.

She just looked brightly at Victoria.

“--- c’mon. One little ol’ convo with me won’t kill you, will it? You talked to Chloe just fine.”

Chloe cleared her throat and rubbed at the back of her neck.

‘Just fine’ was … not the right way to characterize that.

But Rachel probably knew that, anyway, and didn’t care.

Victoria’s frown deepened, but Max sighed, and tactically deployed a touch to Victoria’s shoulder to try and steady her.

“Please, Victoria? For me?”

Max was incredibly useful for these plans in getting Victoria to just go along.

It was nice that it gave Victoria an out for still being a difficult bitch but still being allowed to be something else with some trivial convincing by her girlfriend.

The whole dynamic was a little high school, but still cute.

Victoria groaned and looked away for a second or two, but then sighed and crossed her arms.

“Fine. Five minutes. Go on.”

She didn’t look back as Max and Chloe made their way into the Restaurant.

All according to Rachel’s plan.

Rachel smiled obnoxiously and brought her hands behind her back in some measure to seem less intimidating, even if Victoria was taller.

When Max and Chloe were out of earshot, Rachel cleared her throat.

And she sobered up her expression.

She knew she was always all smiles around most people, so people typically paid attention when she wasn’t.

This included Victoria, who noticed it immediately, and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“I just wanted to thank you again for whatever you said to Chloe to get her to talk to Max.”

Victoria looked around.

There wasn’t anyone around to preserve her image.

This was only about preserving it in front of Rachel.

And how much value did she place on that?

Was making Max happier more important?

Rachel was betting ---

Victoria sighed wearily, looked back to Rachel, uncrossed her arms, and looked down to the floor for a second or two.

She looked back up.

“Yeah. It wasn’t … _easy_.”

Rachel smirked a little.

“I hear you had to make quite an arrangement.”

Victoria nodded, slowly and carefully.

“Talked about that already, did you? Yes. That’s … _one_ way to describe it, certainly.”

If Rachel didn’t know better, she would have sworn Victoria’s lips curled up very slightly into the world’s least impressive smile.

“Chloe tells me everything, of course. I’m just happy she gets to understand what you have with Max is loving and thoughtful.”

Victoria hesitated, for a second or two.

Rachel would never be so direct in complimenting her or her relationships like that, before.

Always oblique stuff.

And it was a fun kind of game to keep up for a while, but – high school.

Annoying Victoria was fun, but there were more important things to focus on, now.

Like making Chloe happy.

“I … didn’t expect you to think I was treating Max well.”

Rachel smirked.

“Because you’re kind of a bitch and you have a reputation for one night stands and broken hearts?”

Victoria recrossed her arms and shrugged vaguely.

“… something like that, I suppose. We also haven’t really had … much of a reason to think positively of one another.”

Rachel just smiled and brushed past Victoria.

Victoria looked behind her, and Rachel turned on her heel to walk backwards with her arms extended on either side of her body.

“Well, what can I say? Things change, Victoria. I’m happy you have someone that can make you less difficult.”

Victoria looked forward again, scoffed, exactly as Rachel planned.

“And if you … just so happen to expose Chloe to some fun stuff … I won’t complain.”

Obviously, the weird compromise thing that Chloe and Victoria came up with wasn’t part of Rachel’s plans at all, but easy enough to work into them.

The words landed in a way Rachel wasn’t expecting, though.

Victoria turned around sharply with a harsh frown.

“Stop.”

Rachel blinked, but did, and carefully recrossed her arms.

“Stop what?”

Victoria groaned and almost raised a hand up to rub at her temples but seemed to remember halfway through the muscle memory that she was wearing 20 pounds of makeup so this was unadvisable so she just sort of awkwardly crammed her arms back into being crossed.

“Stop with these … games. And indirect stuff. If you want me to show Chloe something … just fucking tell me. Like a human being.”

Rachel had … a weird moment of self-reflection.

Just fucking tell her.

Like a human being.

Like Rachel wanted her dad to, all of that time ago.

She bit her lip, and didn’t know why this got to her in the way it did, but it certainly wasn’t what she was planning on happening.

She looked down with a sigh, and there was quiet between them for a few moments.

Rachel looked up, and her face was somber, but this wasn’t some careful planning this time, it just … was.

“Alright. You want the cards in my hand? I’ll give ‘em to you, just this once.”

In a less serious conversation, this would have came with a wink.

Victoria just stared, unimpressed.

“I … want to see if Chloe is into bondage at all, but … I don’t want her to think I’m a freak or something. So I don’t want to bring it up. It’d be … very convenient … if you could work that in, somehow.”

Victoria actually softened up her face in a way Rachel hadn’t seen.

Maybe it was the first time the two talked without infinite plausible deniability between what they were saying and doing.

She took a few steps closer, and sighed.

She closed her eyes, and hesitated visibly for a few seconds.

“I can … very easily make it a requirement that she be tied to a chair. Some crap about her not being able to be trusted with her hands, or something.”

Rachel smiled, pleasantly.

“I would appreciate it. Just um. _Don’t_ touch her past that.”

Victoria’s face suddenly shifted into another kind of expression Rachel hadn’t seen – a wickedly amused grin.

“I will make no promises … perhaps if she’s loud and difficult as she always is, I would have to gag her.”

Rachel scoffed but she –

She realized Victoria was being playful.

So instead, she just grinned back, giggled, and playfully shoved at Victoria’s shoulder.

“You touch my girl and I’m ending you, Victoria.”

Victoria didn’t mind the shove and brushed past Rachel with a deep chuckle.

“As though I don’t know that.”

 

Rachel smiled.

Victoria smiled.

 

The two of them entered the Restaurant and found the table that had been occupied by Max and Chloe.

They had their own delightful conversation in the intervening moments.

Rachel was so happy to see the two of them talking again …

She honestly wasn’t expecting to have too human a moment with Victoria.

She thought, perhaps, Victoria would be as consumed with her pride as she always was, and refuse to accept much of Rachel because of past transgressions.

And while some of that was doubtlessly still there in the barbs and spines exchanged when they bantered, Rachel saw something else, too.

She saw Victoria smile.

She saw her laugh.

That all couldn’t have been from Max.

 

Easily one of the best double dates Rachel had had.

And when Chloe bet the entire table $20 she could inhale her entire roast beef sandwich at once, and _almost_ succeeded, Rachel knew it was going to be a night forever burned into her memory.

Sometimes, people are stupid and don’t know what they want.

But sometimes, they know exactly what they want, and are just too afraid to ask for it.

It was nice to remind herself that Victoria just wanted some humanity out of Rachel every once in a while.

 

That wouldn’t be so hard, right?

Especially with Max around.

 

She did wonder how this arrangement of theirs was going to work out, though.

And of how riled up Chloe was going to be when she came back …

That was a nice, pleasant thought that kept her peacefully distracted for most of the night.


	14. Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria prepares for Chloe coming over.
> 
> Kind of.
> 
> Max moans.
> 
> Chloe blushes.

“I still think Blade Runner would have been better if it was gayer.”

Chloe’s comment as the four of them left the diner earned the usual reactions.

Victoria rolled her eyes.

Max giggled quietly.

Rachel just smirked and scoffed.

“What movie wouldn’t be?”

Chloe blinked and looked over to her girlfriend.

“Touche …”

They both grinned and exchanged the briefest of kisses.

The four of them just kept walking.

Max stayed buried into Victoria’s side, squeezing her hand occasionally for no reason in particular.

“There more things in life than movies and being gay, Chloe.”

Victoria’s tone was as it always was, somewhere between flat and annoyed, but Chloe and Rachel registered it differently after tonight.

It felt like they better knew when her banter was seriously intending to be venom, and when it was just her being her bitchy self.

So Chloe looked back to Victoria with an obnoxious smirk.

 

“Yeah. There’s sex, too.”

 

Victoria blinked, and blushed a little, and looked forward.

Rachel smirked.

Max giggled nervously.

 

“Speaking of …”

Chloe cleared her throat.

Victoria looked over to her with a small frown.

“Yes, Price?”

Chloe bit her lip and hesitated for a few seconds.

They were still walking to the parking lot.

“Do you want to do that thing? Tonight? Our deal?”

The four of them stopped at the edge of the parking lot, by their respective cars.

Victoria made a thoughtful sound and spared a look at Max, then Chloe again.

“I don’t know. Tonight wasn’t exactly … romantic.”

Max nodded in agreement.

This afternoon was a lot of things, but wall-to-wall romantic it surely wasn’t.

Chloe just shrugged.

“Maybe not like, walk on the beach with bare feet while you look at the stars and swap stories kind of romantic.”

She looked to Rachel, who always appreciated it when Chloe painted romantic pictures with her words, then back to Victoria.

“But this was … nice. Comfy. Like we could do this more often, or something.”

Max nodded in agreement again.

It certainly started off a little awkward, but, they got to a nice place by the end.

Victoria just hummed flatly.

“The jury is still out on that, but I suppose it wouldn’t kill me to have … _another_ double date.”

Max giggled cutely and broke her hand away to tightly hug at Victoria from her side.

Chloe and Rachel both smirked.

“Anyway. Shouldn’t be so hard to get in the mood, right?”

Victoria blinked.

Max blinked.

Chloe looked pointedly at Max for a few seconds, grinned, and crossed her arms, before looking to Victoria.

“What did you say, that one time? ‘She gets off on it’?”

Max blushed and hid her shame somewhere in Victoria’s person, and that was just fine by Victoria, who scoffed.

She still really didn’t know how to return the affection of Max hugging her like this, though, with one hand just kind of awkwardly on her back and shoulder, unsure of what to do, and her other by her side in a loose fist.

“… quite.”

Victoria closed her eyes and sighed.

“Well.”

She opened her eyes.

“I _suppose_ I have nothing against us trying tonight.”

She looked down to Max, as much as she could, but Max just nodded into her, still trying to hide her shame.

Maybe while she still could …

The thought had Victoria smirking as she looked back to Chloe.

Chloe uncrossed her arms and bounced very slightly on her boots with excitement.

“Raaaaaaaad. This is gonna be so badass.”

 

This was actually going to happen.

 

There were some logistics to take care of, first – Victoria needed to get everything set up, most wanted to change into something more casual, and they all simply just needed to get back to Blackwell.

They left as separately as they came.

Chloe would stay in Rachel’s dorm for the night, and Max in Victoria’s.

Nothing too unusual.

 

The unusual stuff was going to start in an hour.

 

Max laid on the bed and stared doe-eyed at Victoria as Victoria sat at her computer chair.

She had her face slightly lowered, rubbing at her cheek with a thumb and her temples with two fingers.

They both changed into something more comfortable, and both had gotten rid of most of their makeup.

 

That, in itself, would be mighty unusual if Victoria knew someone other than Max was going to see her.

But … tonight was going to be different.

Chloe, of all people, was going to see this Victoria that only Max saw, and that was the whole point of her request, she knew.

Victoria wasn’t sure how comfortable she was showing that to her.

Maybe there really wasn’t any point in being nervous or weird about it.

Max and her had been in the Vortex Club lounge with Max being obviously fingered or otherwise being used by Victoria in a manner of ways quite a few times by now.

So somehow, the sex part of this was less scandalizing than the vulnerability part.

Weird thoughts.

 

“Are you like, okay with this? You look a little tense.”

 

Victoria sighed, but smiled gently.

Max was so in tune with her body language these days.

Not that this position was particularly subtle.

Still, she sat up straight and inched her chair around so she could face Max and cross her arms.

She slouched a bit back into the chair, though, and crossed a leg too, for good measure.

“I don’t know, Max.”

It came out as a sigh.

Max blinked, but turned onto her side to have more of her body facing Victoria.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want. I’m sure Chloe will …”

Max winced a little,

“… eventually understand. What’s between us.”

Victoria shrugged.

“Maybe, with enough double dates … or maybe it’s time to just rip the band-aid off.”

Victoria closed her eyes and breathed in deep.

“The Victoria that used people for the sex is dead. And there’s no better way to prove that than this.”

When she opened her eyes again, Max was so obviously and cutely beaming with affection.

Victoria smiled.

Max did, too.

Then Max just giggled and fell onto her back, looking at Victoria’s ceiling and breathing contently.

For a while, that was enough for the both of them.

Victoria just stared plainly at Max, watching her breathe and relax.

But eventually, Max looked back over to her, still smiling.

“I … feel like I don’t tell you this enough, but I love you, Victoria.”

Victoria smirked and playfully scoffed.

She rolled her eyes.

“As though I don’t know that. I … love you too, Max.”

The moment was nice.

The list of people that would hear those words from Victoria was impossibly short, with not even the obligatory relatives being on it.

A fact that wasn’t lost on either of them.

It was enough to compel Victoria to stand up and Max to sit up.

Victoria walked to the edge of the bed, Max made her way there.

Victoria leaned down, still with her arms crossed, and kissed Max.

 

Usually, that was enough.

Their kisses were short but pointed and meaningful.

But when Victoria pulled away, this time, Max raised her hands up to place them at the back of Victoria’s head and dragged her back down.

The move was surprising enough to earn an appropriately-surprised exhale from Victoria, and her eyes shot wide open, but –

Max was there.

They were making out, now.

Despite some initial stiffness in Victoria’s person, she eventually melted and relented.

She closed her eyes and just enjoyed her girlfriend slowly, delicately, lovingly make out with her.

She uncrossed her arms, thoughtlessly, and brought them to touch Max’s sides, and return the affection she was receiving.

And while normally her hair was totally off-limits for touching …

Max could touch it, if she really wanted to.

It was kind of nice to feel Max’s hands on the back of her head and neck, making affectionate but random and impassioned patterns with her fingers.

Especially when Max involved with little nails she had to scratch gently.

 

Victoria got lost in the moment.

And stopped caring.

 

Eventually though, Victoria opened her eyes, cleared her throat, and pulled away just a bit from the overtly-affectionate Max.

The two of them stayed with their mouths gaping, though, and some heavier-than usual breathing creating the interesting experience of sticky and warm breaths colliding with blushing and heated skin.

Victoria brought her arms down.

Max just stared at her.

“Why stop? That was … _fun_.”

Victoria would never get tired of hearing her breathless Max talk.

She couldn't help but smile.

“Yeah but … I need to … plan stuff … and … get ready … this night … has to go … _perfect_.”

Max just shook her head, slightly, and kissed Victoria once more.

“It will be … perfect … because you’re here …”

Fuck, Max.

There was no way Victoria was going to let that moment ago.

She pushed down and forward, and they resumed.

 

Victoria got lost in the moment.

And stopped caring.

 

They did eventually stop, and while they wasted entirely too much time with that, Victoria decided she didn’t care.

They didn’t need to plan out a super complicated night, anyway …

 

Max giggled and tugged Victoria down to the bed with her.

It was inelegant, and Victoria kind of fell into Max awkwardly, but it didn’t matter.

Victoria didn’t care.

She was just all smiles as her girlfriend dragged her down like this.

“Hnn … watch out, dummy … You’re going to make me ---”

Even though she kind of awkwardly fell on Max, Max was just all smiles too.

“--- do what? Is you … being on me … supposed to be a ... _bad_ thing now?”

Victoria scoffed playfully and bit at Max’s lip.

Max just giggled and cutely squeaked.

“Oh, shush … don’t get … _too_ into it … we still have some time.”

But Victoria wasn’t helping things when she raised her hands to find Max’s wrists and dig her nails into them for a few seconds.

Max closed her eyes and produced the appropriately heated sounds, but not that she needed this after all of that making out.

“Maybe I want to … stew uselessly … for that time … thinking about you …”

Fuck, Max.

Victoria dug her nails in, again, and Max gyrated her chest up to have more positive contact with Victoria’s own.

Victoria then cleared her throat, and slid off Max to get in a more comfortable and natural position on the bed.

Max understood what was happening immediately and so didn’t complain.

It was efficient, since they did this often.

Victoria got herself back on top of Max, only they were both appropriately laying length-wise on the bed, now.

They intertwined themselves, or more like Max immediately started rubbing her legs and groin against Victoria’s own, but Victoria didn’t mind.

She just brought Max’s wrists above her head, dug in for a few seconds, raked her hands down, and started to rub at her girlfriend’s sides.

“Close your eyes.”

Max didn’t need to be told twice.

Victoria’s hands went under her shirt.

Max kept grinding herself against Victoria.

Victoria lowered her face down further, until she was whispering into Max’s ear.

“Chloe’s going to know … just how much … of a thirsty _bitch_ you are …”

Max made a dreamy mummering sound, happy.

“Yeah …?”

Victoria just barely nodded.

“Just imagine it … Chloe - just as fucking broken … as she was all of that time ago … staring gobsmacked … at every bit of you … instead of just some … bedsheets.”

Max shuddered.

Victoria close her eyes.

She didn’t need to see the blush on Max’s face to feel her excitement, anyway.

“Mmmmmhhhhnnnn Victoria … no one’s seen us … totally naked before.”

Victoria kissed at Max’s ear, then bit it gently.

“A special occasion for a … special night … my amazing girlfriend’s … dreams … _fantasies_ … coming true.”

Max tried to grind every bit of herself that she could against Victoria – chest, legs, belly, whatever.

She just wanted everything Victoria had to give.

“Victoria … _fuck_. T-touch me.”

Victoria kissed a bit lower, then bit at some part of Max’s neck briefly.

Max moaned, wantonly.

“But I already am … Max.”

Victoria pointedly raked her nails at what bit of skin they were around on Max’s sides, but Max just produced a long, drawn-out whining sound at this.

“Nnnnoooo … not there. I … need it, Victoria.”

 Victoria just made a thoughtful sound.

“Oh?”

Kiss.

Bite.

“Mmmmmmmm. Where oh where could you … _possibly_ want me … to touch?”

Max whined again, and it was such a pathetic but deeply endearing, and arousing, sound.

“My … p-pussy, Mistress. _Fuck_ me.”

Victoria repeated the thoughtful sound.

Kiss.

Bite.

Max moaned again, more heated this time.

But Victoria’s hands still didn’t give Max what she wanted.

“Mmmmmm. Where are your manners? That … almost sounded like … a _command_.”

Max groaned.

“I’m sorry … Mistress … _pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase_ , Mistress … fuck me.”

Victoria would absolutely never tire of hearing her girlfriend so breathlessly beg to be fucked.

Corrupting Max into this perverse thing, but also Max corrupting Victoria into being so loving and doting.

“Well, I ---”

Someone knocked on the door.

They both groaned and hesitated on getting up.

Shit.

They didn’t run out of time that quickly, did they …?

Victoria was the first to get up, since she had to be.

Max just stayed on the bed, uselessly stewing like she wanted to, anyway.

Victoria thought about waiting a bit to see if she could calm the blush on her cheeks or maybe make some last-minute plans, but …

Fuck it.

She purposefully chose to spend that time with her girlfriend, instead.

Victoria didn’t care.

Like Max.

She was fucking perfect.

This night was going to be amazing.

She crossed her arms and walked over to the door, and opened it without a second thought or hesitation.

 

“Chloe.”

Chloe was, of course, there, and she looked down at Victoria blinking stupidly for a few seconds.

“You look … different.”

Understatement of the year.

This Victoria looked absolutely nothing like what Chloe knew her as.

Victoria’s mouth was gaping, slightly, and she was breathing heavily.

The obvious and inexplicable amounts of blush saturating her face.

Some sweat.

Her hair was messed up, like someone just ran their fingers through it to purposefully floof it up.

She had on way less makeup, and Chloe could see the unevenness of her skin as it was naturally, and some wrinkles and blemishes concealer had routinely been used to cover up.

Even her posture was different.

She wasn’t all self-contained, she was leaning sideways somewhat, with an arm out and gripping at the door frame, as if to block Chloe from just walking in.

Her other arm was just lazily draped down her side.

And her clothes, too.

Victoria had on just the barest of clothes – nothing perfectly coordinated, or immaculate.

Just an under shirt – tank top thing that she’d probably been wearing the entire day – and her panties.

At least _those_ were appropriately frilly and girly.

About the only thing that was familiar to this Chloe was the _smirk_ Victoria gained at Chloe’s words.

“I _am_ different.”

Chloe blinked.

Victoria relished the words, fully emboldened by everything that had just happened, all of the night, and all of the time with Max.

She _was_ different.

She didn’t even feel anxious with Chloe seeing her like this.

Fuck it.

She pushed herself off the door frame and stood up straight, before backing up.

It looked like all Chloe did was immediately change back into her comfortable daily wear, the same clothes she was wearing before Rachel forced her into the dress.

Just no shoes or socks, since what was the point.

“In. No wasting time.”

Chloe scoffed at being bossed around, but obeyed anyway, eyeing Victoria thoughtfully.

Still.

She liked bossy people.

If she was being honest.

Victoria closed the door behind her.

Chloe noticed, and just kind of stopped dead in her tracks, when she saw Max, and the state she was in.

Holy crap.

This was definitely happening, now.

Victoria scoffed, though, and came up behind Chloe.

She placed both of her hands on Chloe’s shoulders and rubbed firmly in a massage, and the fact that Chloe was taller didn’t faze Victoria in the slightest.

“We’ve been … _waiting_ for you, _Chloe_.”

Chloe gulped.

She definitely wasn’t expecting … all of this.

Victoria being so confident, and overtly sexual.

Chloe started to blush and realized this night was probably going to be long and hard on her.

“Uhhm - don’t touch me.”

That was part of the arrangement, right?

Fuck, they barely set any terms or conditions to this shit.

What if Victoria wanted _her_ to do stuff?

Victoria just chuckled a low and satisfied thing, and brushed past Chloe.

Chloe stared at the very obvious and show-y cat walk Victoria did back to her computer chair.

She sat down on it and turned to face Chloe, again.

She brought one leg over the other and calmly rested her hands together, on one of her knees.

And smirked.

“This is _my_ … domain. You have no … say in here.”

Chloe blinked again.

That didn’t sound good.

She giggled a little nervously.

Max had since opened her eyes and was watching the exchange between the two of them carefully, but Chloe could see Max was mostly focusing on Victoria.

She could also see Max was constantly rubbing her legs together, and Chloe didn’t have to guess why.

“Uh, r-right. But um. Shouldn’t you be wearing like, leather, or something?”

The joke-making was tactically deployed to try and give her some sense of comfort and familiarity, back.

Something she’d picked up from Rachel, when things got weird or heavy.

Still, the words earned an amused scoff out of Victoria, who rolled her eyes, and even a very gentle sound of Max that sounded equally amused.

Victoria stood up, again.

“Maybe if this was a porno.”

Chloe smirked, and shrugged.

But she got antsy when Victoria stepped in front of her, again.

Victoria noticed.

“You’re going to … vibrate yourself to death … _relax._ ”

She brought her hands on Chloe’s shoulders again, and started rubbing, again.

The attention _was_ somewhat relaxing, but Chloe scoffed, amused.

“Uhhhh. How do you think I can just _relax_ \---”

Chloe intentionally used the same amount of emphasis as Victoria had –

“--- with … all of this?”

Victoria smirked.

She walked behind Chloe, and continued rubbing her shoulders when she got there.

“Close your eyes.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, but obliged Victoria, sensing this would get to the good part more quickly if she just let Victoria have her way, for now.

“I know sex stuff … make some people … a little uncomfortable. Anxious. But … it doesn’t have to be like … that.”

Chloe kept her eyes closed and considered Victoria’s words.

The shoulder rubbing was starting to feel pretty good.

“And this is all … you know … weird freaky shit … for perverts like me.”

Chloe made an amused scoff, but was softer this time.

“But there’s something beautiful … and natural about it … learning to just … _let go_ … not worry about stuff … outside of this room.”

Chloe hummed thoughtfully.

“And I’m not bossing you … or Max, around as some … ego thing - it’s actually a ... form of affection.”

It did kind of feel like an ego thing, but, whatever.

Chloe’s eyes were closed so she couldn’t roll them.

Victoria removed her hands and walked around in front of Chloe, again.

She grasped at Chloe’s wrists, and her nails were –

They were something else, Chloe had to admit.

This grip was impossibly tight, as though Victoria had means behind her smaller stature.

Chloe blinked her eyes open to look down uneasily at Victoria.

“So … just give me _one_ chance … listen to me.”

Victoria looked off to Max.

So did Chloe.

“Let me prove to you … it is what I say. And … obey.”

Victoria looked back to Chloe.

Chloe looked back to Victoria.

“Uhm … can I say no?”

Victoria had herself an amused scoff, since this tone of voice was still playful.

Chloe and her irreverence.

Victoria removed her hands from Chloe’s wrists and nodded slowly.

“If you want to … the door’s right there. You can walk out, at any time. And if this … gets too crazy, or something, just say ‘sparkling vampires’.”

Chloe blinked.

“Sparkling vampires?”

Victoria smirked.

“Exactly. Say that, and … I’ll stop everything and make sure … you’re still comfortable.”

Chloe blinked, and crossed her arms.

It was so weird seeing Victoria be like this.

Somewhat affectionate, touching her, prowling around.

Rachel wasn’t wrong - she was a totally different person behind closed doors.

“O-okay. Just once. To prove you _wrong_.”

Victoria smirked.

She turned on her heel, proudly catwalked to her computer chair again, and pushed it in front of Chloe.

“Sit.”

Chloe blinked, but obliged her.

“Bossy bossy.”

Victoria scoffed, amused, and walked around behind the computer chair.

She secured Chloe’s wrists again, and tugged them behind the chair.

“H-hey …”

Victoria tapped her nails along Chloe’s wrists.

“Shhhhh. Calm down. Just … close your eyes. And remember. Sparkling vampires. I will … stop everything.”

Victoria could feel some shiver in Chloe’s body.

Despite everything, despite her punk attitude, despite her careless, above-it-all nature - Victoria could tell she was anxious.

Maybe even scared.

“O-oh … okay.”

Victoria hummed thoughtfully.

“Now keep your wrists there.”

Victoria removed her hands.

Chloe obliged.

Victoria smiled, and walked over to her bed.

She spared Max a quick and affectionate kiss before getting down on her knees and pulling out a chest from underneath her bed.

Quickly, she found what she was looking for.

Some rope, and a pair of handcuffs.

She got back up and efficiently made her way behind Chloe again.

Chloe still hadn’t moved an inch or seemingly even opened her eyes.

That passivity Victoria wasn’t expecting in the slightest - was Chloe naturally submissive?

There’s a weird thought.

It had her smirking as the handcuffs went on.

Chloe gasped, but Victoria moved her hands back up to rub at Chloe’s shoulders until she calmed down, again.

If she did this too quickly, Chloe would rightly freak.

“Shhhh. Just some handcuffs. You don’t … really need your hands, anyway, do you?”

Chloe murmured something, before clearing her throat and speaking more clearly and loudly.

“I guess not.”

Victoria started to bring the rope around Chloe’s arms and chest, securing her to the chair.

She was surprised how little Chloe responded to this other than just passively allowing it.

That more-or-less sealed it in Victoria’s mind that passivity was Chloe’s natural role, and she just needed an environment comforting and safe enough to show it.

Around someone she trusted.

And that was a weird thought.

How much one day can change.

Victoria didn’t dwell on it.

She just wrapped the rope a few times and tied it not especially tight but not loose, either.

Chloe wasn’t getting off the chair any time soon.

When she was done, Victoria cleared her throat and carefully placed her hand on Chloe’s chin to work it back up into looking at Victoria.

“You can open your eyes now.”

Chloe did.

“Is that too tight? Do you want it looser?”

Chloe blushed and gaped her mouth kind of stupidly for a few seconds.

But Victoria was patient.

Eventually, after entirely too long, Chloe cleared her throat again and slowly shook her head.

“N-no that’s, that's ... fine, I … g-guess.”

Victoria just smiled.

“Good. We want you to be _nice_ and _comfortable_ … for your show.”

Chloe blushed much more deeply.

Victoria smirked, and brought the hand down to her neck, before breaking away from Chloe entirely.

Just one more thing to do.

She got some more rope from the chest – once again getting a quick kiss from Max – and returned back to Chloe, only kneeling in front of her.

She used the rope to wrap it around Chloe’s feet and secure them to the spokes of the computer chair underneath, keeping her legs spread, and, importantly, unable to grind together.

Too much, anyway.

Chloe whined when she realized what was happening, but still, didn’t move her feet or be obnoxious to Victoria’s wishes.

When Victoria was done, she stood back up.

“This feeling of helplessness … It doesn’t have to be a … bad thing.”

Chloe blinked.

Victoria pointedly cat walked to her door to lock it, and walked back to stand in front of Chloe.

“You’re safe, here. You can just focus … on us … and not worry about anything else.”

Chloe blinked again.

It did sound kind of nice to be able to just focus on that, and not have to worry about her like awkwardly standing, unsure of what to do with her hands or anything.

She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about Victoria bossing her around and tying her up, but Chloe certainly liked it when Rachel was bossy.

And the feeling of the restraints was interesting.

She just imagined Rachel doing this instead of Victoria, and the thought wasn’t completely repulsive …

She blushed some more.

Victoria just chuckled deeply and walked behind the computer chair.

She pushed it closer to the bed.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

It was right in front of it, now, with the only space being there for Chloe’s legs.

Victoria gently got on the bed and sat up on her knees.

She looked over to Max.

“Up, Max.”

Victoria purposefully avoided any heavy talk to not weird Chloe out.

Max just smiled and obliged, getting up on her knees with Victoria.

 

It was happening.

 

Chloe gaped her mouth and just watched as Victoria and Max combined in front of her.

They made out, and Victoria was so -

Obviously into Max.

Max was so obviously into Victoria.

Chloe would never see something like this out of them in public.

Never.

Victoria still allowed Max to further mess up her hair – so _that’s_ why – and Victoria obviously touched and stroked Max’s body in a way she never did in public.

Chloe was here, but she felt a million miles away when they were focusing on each other, like this.

Victoria simply didn’t care that Chloe was _right there_.

Preserving her image, either literal or socially, just didn’t matter here and now.

Victoria wasn’t Victoria.

She was Max’s girlfriend.

 

Eventually, they broke away from making out.

Victoria looked over to Chloe, but she didn’t smirk.

She was just breathing heavy, with her mouth gaping for better air intake.

She looked back to Max, then made a thoughtful sound.

“Mmmm … darling, why don’t you … get right in front of our … guest …?”

Max grinned from ear to ear and nodded.

Chloe blinked as Max inched away from Victoria and kneeled right in front of her, still on the bed.

Max was actually more dressed than Victoria with an oversized tee functioning as a night gown and equally-girly panties that looked suspiciously like Victoria’s – a matching set?

But that quickly changed as Victoria wormed behind Max, hooked her fingers under her tee, and started to trail it up.

But the pace was slow, and agonized, and deliberate.

Max paid very particular attention to Chloe’s features as she was being stripped by her girlfriend.

One of Victoria’s hands came to rub at Max’s belly in an obviously possessing way, tugging her more into Victoria’s front.

Those fingers trailed so close to the hem of her panties, too …

Suddenly, Victoria smirked, and hiked the shirt all of the way up and off Max, with Max’s arms limply raising up and obliging her when the time was right.

Then, Victoria obnoxiously tossed the shirt at Chloe’s face, hindering her view.

Max giggled.

“H-hey … !”

Chloe struggled on the chair, slightly, but she was totally immobile.

Maybe she could shake off the tee, though …

Victoria spoke before the thought finished.

“Mmmmnnn … I’ll take the shirt off when we’re ready.”

Chloe huffed, but, whatever.

It was definitely something else to have Max’s night gown on her face, like this.

Chloe could smell her so strongly, but also the overtones that Victoria’s room and presence provided.

It was like Chloe always remembered Max smelling, but … different, somehow.

Way more lavender …

Chloe could hear them moving, and figured they were probably stripping some more.

She was definitely getting aroused, now, and she almost felt bad about this, since she was Rachel’s girlfriend.

But they had watched porn together, and like Rachel said.

There are a lot of things that count as cheating, but watching two women love each other isn’t one of them.

It just meant Rachel would have a special version of Chloe especially ready for her attentions … especially after being denied anything earlier.

Being pent-up wasn’t going to make this easier at all.

 

When the two of them had gotten well and properly naked, and their clothes had been tossed to the couch, Max looked back to Victoria, and Victoria to Max.

This was it.

Victoria was about to nakedly fuck her girlfriend for Chloe to see.

There was no more persistent fantasy for Max than voyeurism – as Victoria remembers, it was even her first.

So to be able to engage in her girlfriend’s biggest fetish in such an overt way …

It made Victoria very happy.

Their look was brief and the information exchanged was immediate and thoughtless.

Max smiled.

She was totally relaxed, or at least, as much as you can be, when aroused of out of your fucking mind.

Her entire face was on fire, and she was still breathing heavily, but they both knew this is what she wanted.

And what Chloe wanted too, apparently.

Victoria peeled herself from the bed and walked behind Chloe.

She tore the shirt off her head and tossed it to the couch with the rest of their garments.

Chloe blinked her eyes open.

And gasped, again.

Max looked at her cutely and giggled.

Her legs were closed, but her hands weren’t keeping her chest decent.

They were just resting about her thighs and knees.

Victoria leaned over to Chloe’s ear and whispered low, dangerous, seductive.

 

“Look all you want … she gets off on it … you know.”

 

The first time this line was said, Max was still a little uncomfortable with her sexuality.

At least to the point of people other than Victoria knowing she was Not Normal.

But here, now … it didn’t register in her mind at all.

So what if she wasn’t normal?

She had a loving girlfriend that accepted her for what she was and encouraged her to be herself.

She pushed out her chest a little bit and very slightly swayed from side to side, as if to give Chloe more to look at.

Chloe just stared with her mouth gaping and blush ever growing.

Victoria didn’t expect her to be functional, though, so she just stood up with another chuckle and got back on the bed.

Perhaps Chloe seeing her naked would have made some inferior version of Victoria anxious.

But that Victoria was dead.

She had a loving girlfriend that accepted her for what she was and encouraged her to be herself.

It didn’t even register in her mind at all.

Instead, she just inched her way behind Max, secured her wrists, and dug her nails into them.

Max closed her eyes and produced the appropriate sound, as heated as Victoria wanted it to be.

Victoria closed her own eyes, and didn’t care that Chloe was like a foot away, so desperately close.

She brought Max’s wrists behind her, securing them in the space between their bodies, and although the hold wasn’t that secure, it didn’t matter, since Max wanted them there anyway.

 

Victoria roamed her hands around to Max’s front.

 

Max turned her face as though to bury it somewhere in Victoria’s person, but couldn’t with the position.

One of Victoria’s hands went to her belly, the other to a breast to pinch at a nipple.

Perhaps appropriately, the very same things she was doing to Max in a similar position to when Chloe first saw them together.

Max was more than eager to receive Victoria’s hands on her, but Victoria had been teasing her all night now.

So while the attention was loved, and the sounds she produced Victoria enjoyed … it wasn’t enough.

“Mistress … please …”

Victoria considered toning the language down since Chloe was there, but the thought was gone as quick as it came.

Fuck it.

She didn’t care, anymore.

“Please what, _bitch_?”

Max shuddered, and not because she was cold.

Victoria could feel her gyrate her body more into Victoria’s hands, and she could feel Max tightly grip her own hands together.

“Please, M-mistress … f- _fuck_ me … make Chloe see … e-every inch …”

Victoria produced a thoughtful sound.

She had trained Max so well on the dirty begging talk.

 “And why would … I do that … mmm?”

Max whined.

“B-because I don’t … deserve … to be clothed … or decent … I n-need to be … _naked_ … and _collared_ … and _controlled_ … by you … **_forever_** …”

Victoria blinked slightly at the last word.

Max put so very much into it … and they hadn’t really talked much about long-term plans …

There was this weird mix of being turned on and feeling so deeply loved that Victoria didn’t know what to do with herself.

 

Well.

 

No.

 

That wasn’t quite right.

Victoria knew exactly what to do.

“In that case …”

She pinched Max’s nipple aggressively, even scraping her nails very slightly around it afterwards, and brought her second hand lower, lower, and lower still.

Max eagerly spread her legs and allowed Victoria every inch of access she wanted, even pushing herself more towards Chloe in an effort to show her everything she wanted to see.

Normally, Victoria would continue to tease Max for quite some time.

But tonight was special, and they had already had their foreplay and fun.

Hell, just Chloe being tied up there was probably enough for Max on its own.

Instead, Victoria’s hand didn’t tease, it wasn’t slow, and the contact it made to Max’s groin was immediate and righteous.

Max’s moans were similarly immediately wet and needing.

“Cum for me, the slave that I love so … **_fucking_** much.”

 

Victoria didn’t have to try very hard or for very long to get just that, out of her girlfriend.

 

It didn’t take very long until Max’s body was seized up, until not even her lungs could be forced to breath, until she produced the loudest and most erotic moan Victoria had ever heard her make, until she sort fell over limply onto the bed, on her side, and until Victoria laid down with her, and just gently stroked at her exhausted body afterwards, placing millions of little kisses to the back of Max’s head.

 

Max wasn’t allowed to orgasm that often.

It made every one of them special, in their own way.

It had to have been weeks since the last …

Victoria could hear it in every sound Max made tonight, especially when she was getting off, and especially in how immediately correct and degrading her begging was.

Controlling her girlfriend’s sex life meant she could top off a perfect night with a perfect cherry.

 

And for a while, Victoria honestly forgot that Chloe was in the room.

Max and Victoria just enjoyed each other, with their eyes closed.

 

But Chloe, eventually, cleared her throat.

“U-um ... I think I get it … can I go now?”

Victoria smirked and made an amused exhale.

Max turned around to face her girlfriend and gave her one more loving kiss on the lips before Victoria begrudgingly got up.

She worked her way off of the bed, amused at how Chloe was clearly breathing heavy herself and doubtlessly aroused from the show, and once again placed her hands on Chloe’s chin, though she didn’t need to be forced to look up to Victoria, anyway.

“ _Can_ you or _may_ you?”

Chloe exhale, amused, and her lips curled up into a grin.

“You are such a bitch sometimes, I s-swear … _may_ I go now?”

Victoria just smiled, smiled, smiled.

“Yes. You may.”

 

She undid the rope efficiently, unlocked the cuffs, and started to put everything away back in her chest.

Max looked passed out on the bed, and that was fine.

Chloe sort of awkwardly stood up and rubbed at her wrists.

 

“Um … hey.”

 

She kicked the computer chair back over to Victoria’s desk.

Victoria grunted flatly.

“Yeah.”

Chloe crossed her arms and walked behind her.

“That was … something else.”

Victoria scoffed and rolled her eyes.

She finished putting things away, closed the chest, and shoved it under the bed.

She then stood up to face Chloe.

“Is that your way of telling me you … _enjoyed_ it?”

Chloe shrugged a little, and looked away.

She rubbed at the back of her neck for a few seconds.

“Uhm … I mean, kinda hard not to?”

She looked back to Victoria, and she was smiling.

“Max looked so, so happy.”

They both spared Max a look.

She was _definitely_ passed out on the bed.

When they looked back to each other, Victoria was smiling.

“She is … she is happy. With me. And I’m happy with her.”

Victoria closed her eyes, sighed, and crossed her arms.

“She’s the love of my life.”

When she opened her eyes, Chloe was smiling too, so wide.

“I’m … so happy to hear that. Max really deserves someone … um.”

Victoria smirked.

 

“She deserves a bitch with a heart of gold.”

Chloe exhaled, amused.

“Yeah. She does.”

 

Chloe then cleared her throat.

“Um. I’m gonna … yeah … go, now. But. Thanks for the show.”

Victoria exhaled, amused.

“Of course.”

Victoria walked Chloe to the door, unlocked it, let her out, and closed it behind her.

And locked it again.

 

Then, she spent a few seconds just looking at the floor, with her arms crossed.

That went way better than she was expecting.

Max _did_ look so happy - everything was working out.

Chloe wasn’t upset at her anymore.

She had a wonderful girlfriend.

Victoria whipping her into shape meant her grades were better, too.

She looked up, and smirked.

She turned off the lights.

 

She then carefully worked her way back onto the bed, but had to wake Max up since they were still on the sheets anyway.

They both giggled and hurriedly made their way under the sheets, and intertwined themselves with one another.

They went all of the way under the sheets, so even their heads were submerged.

A million and a one gentle yet passionate kisses.

“Did you see the look on Chloe’s face?”

Victoria grinned.

“It was priceless.”

The two just giggled some more.

But Victoria had a thought, and she paused in her eager attentions to look plainly at Max.

“Did you mean that … _forever_ thing?”

Max blinked.

The two went quiet.

Max looked down to Victoria’s chest, but the look didn’t feel ogling.

She then looked up, and just smiled cutely.

“Absolutely Victoria. After today … there’s no one else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.”

Victoria smiled, too.

She gave Max a quick, but pointed and impassioned kiss on the lips.

“Max, it’s … my family and everything. There’s stuff and ---”

Max kissed her again, more forcefully.

She brought her arms around to squeeze Victoria tightly in her own possessive hug.

Victoria produced a small little squeak as a result, but liked it when Max forcefully kissed her like this, sometimes.

“I don’t care about any of that, Victoria. Whatever it is … we’ll work through it. _Together_.”

Victoria smiled, smiled, smiled.

“Okay, Max. Together.”

The two of them shared a moment where they were just looking at each other plainly, appreciating what little they could see of each other’s face in the darkness, and enjoying each other’s warmth and affection.

But the moment didn’t last forever, and Victoria smirked.

She broke herself out of Max’s grip, and raised her hands up to push down on Max’s head.

“Now … you didn’t think you were _done_ did you? Mistress still needs to feel your tongue.”

Max giggled and allowed herself to be pushed down.

“Then she will … every night of the rest of our lives.”

Fuck, Max.

Victoria closed her eyes, and smiled just so warmly.

 

And made the sounds of satisfaction that they both wanted to hear.

And she didn't care how loud they were.

 

\---

 

Kate picked a bad day to stay in.

Victoria, Max, and Rachel all went out, so it seemed like a good night.

But … no.

The sounds she was hearing from either side of her room …

She sighed.

She just tried to pet her rabbit and try to not understand what ‘ _Fuck_ Max, I’m _fucking_ cumming’ meant.

Even if Victoria was … loud, and Kate heard every syllable.

The entire hall probably did.

At least Kate saw Victoria smile more in public.

Max seemed so happy, too.

 

That’s really all that mattered, wasn’t it?

No matter how bad it looked from the outside.

Maybe it was even worse than it looked.

But maybe, it was even better than it sounded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, so this is very potentially the last chapter of this story, since we've completed the character arcs I was interested in. I'm still uncertain if I want to add more stories in the series or just continue this one, but I'm leaning towards the former right now. Pacing is actually a pretty important thing to me, and this story is already close to the length of the first harry potter book. I would like to tell more stories in this universe, I'm just not sure if they'll be in this particular fic. All the more reason to [subscribe to the series ;)](http://archiveofourown.org/series/902553). 
> 
> Anyway! I would love to hear your thoughts on Even worse as a whole. This project was a long one in the making, and clearly judging by the hits, kudos, comments, etc. y'all found something deeply resonant about it. And I hope that resonant thing wasn't the porn, even if that's fun too. ;)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Lesson](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14449170) by [DropsAgainstTheSky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DropsAgainstTheSky/pseuds/DropsAgainstTheSky)
  * [The Most Humiliating Thing](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15018221) by [DropsAgainstTheSky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DropsAgainstTheSky/pseuds/DropsAgainstTheSky)




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